Don't Ever Let Me Know
by nicthepunk
Summary: Sasuke is forcibly returned to the village by Naruto after a confrontation in the forrest. Now, both he and Sakura must face some aspects of their past head on. Will they have a happy ending together? Rated for later chapters. Please R&R.
1. Returned

**A/N:** There was a longer author's note here but I decided to just get rid of it.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. But I do have Itachi's hair. Like literally… short in front, long in the back, ya know? Anyways, yeah…

**P.S. **For those of you reading "Yours To Hold", I haven't forgotten about you. But "Yours To Hold" is a love story and right now, I just ain't feeling it. It isn't on hiatus or idle or whatever you'd call it but I'm going to lay off of that mushy tale for a bit and let myself get back into the loving part of my life again.

* * *

"_**Bury all your secrets in my skin.  
**__**Come away with innocence,  
**__**And leave me with my sins..."**_

* * *

Everyone has a love story at some point in time in their lives. This one, is mine. Or rather, the end of my pain and suffering. For love has never set me free. It's entrapped me into a web of which I never wish to recall again. But unfortunately, I must relive it every second of my life.

* * *

**::Present::**

* * *

"_Do me one favor, Uchiha Sasuke, if never again in your entire life," she said, a pained expression mixed with sincerity written all over her face, as tears cascaded down both of her cheeks, only to meet at her chin and fall to the Earth below._

"_Hn. What's that?"_

"_Don't ever speak to me again. If never again in your life you were to do me this one last favor, make it being that you never say another word to me. I can't deal with this anymore. If you can't make that promise to me, for whatever reason you might have, then I will end my own life."_

_He said nothing in response. And thus, he let her go, seemingly forever.  
_

* * *

**::But First, A Look Into The past…::**

* * *

Why are so many of us ready, willing, and able to chase someone to the ends of time; ignoring all warning and indication of the pain and hardships to come along the way; only in the end to be shattered with the wreaking disappointment from our targets' lack of caring?

_'And why can't we chose the people we are to fall in love with? It would make things a hell of a lot easier.'_

Why is it that when the one we love only pushes us farther and father away, it only motivates us to keep trying to get closer to them, despite all signs indicating otherwise not to?

_'And why can't they just love us back?'_

These questions are just a few of those that Haruno Sakura pondered upon at least several times a day, in the back of her mind, hidden from the world.

_'Is there a such thing as fate and destiny, or are we all capable of simply fixing and ridding ourselves of the bad things in our lives?'_

* * *

Naruto ran through the treetops, his entire body covered in the blood of a limp and nearly-lifeless young man in his arms. The body was that of another ninja that he had once considered to be a _comrade_, but was now a mere rag doll, unconscious and injured to a maximum degree.

Naruto, of course, didn't come out of this battle unharmed, what with a sliced open shoulder blade and other various cuts and bruises currently being mended by the Kyuubi within him, but still – the condition of his opponent was in far worse condition than he had hoped to leave him in, but even so, it was all the same.

Finally, after three whole years of pure and utter hell, he finally did it—he finally fulfilled his promise to his precious Sakura-chan. Even after she had told him to just give up; that she didn't care about the stupid promise or stupid boy of both of their pasts any longer; he still managed to fulfill that promise in the end, completely unexpectedly and at a total surprise to himself.

This was not a part of his current solo mission at all, nor was it a part of his life's agenda. However, when the young man donned in a Akatsuki cloak had approached him with the sole ambition to take him back to the Akatsuki's lair to remove his Kyuubi, thus killing him, Naruto did what he had to in order to stay alive.

Sasuke had apparently been tailing him for awhile throughout his mission. Unfortunately for him, Naruto was far too stealthy to be caught whilst performing his shinobi duties. They'd both fought pretty much hand-to-hand during the whole time, but in the end, Naruto gained the upper hand on Sasuke using his Sage techniques.

He could have just as easily killed Sasuke, he knew, but that wouldn't be logical; at least, not in his mind. So, instead, he beat him to a bloody pulp and was now returning with the bloody rogue ninja to their home village. It was weird to say the term "their" now having had so much time pass between the two since they had actually both been in the same village at the same time.

_'Sasuke-teme is NOT my friend anymore though, I have to remember that. He tried to kill me. He tried to hurt Sakura-chan! He's a traitor and I have GOT to remember that!'_

Naruto growled down at the dying shinobi in his arms, having already clawed off the Akatsuki robe from his moron of a former best friends limp body.

Finally, the two were reaching the Hidden Leaf Village's main gates and Naruto was growing more and more anxious. Three years of doubt, five total since he had left, gave him a gut feeling as if fate would be the one to keep Sasuke from returning to the village somehow. Naruto knew those thoughts were silly but even so, he was still feeling more and more eerie as they gained closeness to the village gates.

It was a normal mission for Naruto, considering he had done many like them a thousand times before. Infiltrate the temple, steal a ancient jutsu scroll, return to Konoha. Of course, things don't always go according to plan and something always seems to get in the way at moments like these.

Naruto wasn't sure who the cloaked figure whose physique, height, and weight seemed to match his own, only that the insignia on said person's cloak just screamed off _'danger'_. Red flags were going off in his head left and right to either A, run, or B, kill the man before the man could kill him. That is, until he got a glimpse of who his attacker was.

The battle started off with Naruto, unexpectedly of course, nearly having a kunai lodged into his throat. In fact, the aiming precision was a mere centimeter off from killing him. It did, however, get Naruto on guard and ready to fight back against whoever it was that dared to attack him in an ambush.

Naruto heard the chirping of a what sounded like one thousand birds, faintly in the distance ahead of him. He squinted his eyes in the harsh sunlight's glare to make out whatever the source of the bright light in his path was and nearly froze at the site he beheld.

About thirty feet away from him, charging at him full-speed was his rival and former best friend and teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, donned only, from what he could see beyond the brightness of the Chidori, in an Akatsuki cloak.

Naruto felt sick. He knew that Sasuke had turned down a dark path in his life but what he had never expected was this. To him, this was the ultimate betrayal and inside, it truly did break a part of him down, for he knew that he had no other choice but to fight for his life now, the Akatsuki cloak's insignia having already put himself on full alert of what Sasuke wanted. His tailed beast.

* * *

The two fought for what seemed like hours on end until finally, Naruto dealt the near-final blow. Sasuke was nearly out of chakra. He had tried several times to trap Naruto in his mangekyou sharingan, but all that he had succeeded in doing was draining his chakra levels severely.

Towards the end of the fight, Naruto held back as to not kill him. But he sure as hell knocked Sasuke out enough to put him in a semi-comatose state of mind. From there, he would carry his former friend back to their home village, both to save his life, and fulfill his promise.

* * *

As Naruto slowed his running down to a mere sprint, followed by a walk, Izumo and Kotetsu were waiting at the village gates just as always to greet him. Kotetsu was the first to make a failed attempt to greet him upon seeing the bloody heap in his arms.

"Hey Naruto! Welcome…back—"

Insert a completely deadpanned expression on Kotetsu's face here.

Naruto responded with a look of determination, with eyes that both said 'not right now' in them as clear as day. His pace never slowed, however, and he continued making his way direct to the Konoha General Hospital.

In all honesty, he was gaining a lot of nervousness for Sakura's sake, worried about her reaction to seeing Sasuke again after so long. He knew that she was finally working on moving on with her life but even so, he knew it would be hard for the Kunoichi to take THIS of all things.

Finally, he could see the big, silver doors of the hospital in the distance and he began to increase his speed. Bursting both of the doors open of the hospital, he was met with Sakura, much to his worry, whom was sitting at a desk filling out some paperwork. The loud 'bang' of the doors slamming open was enough to jar her from her thoughts and she looked up, her facial features going from a stoic look to one of horror as she eyed the bloody mess before her.

Immediately, she stood up and jumped over the counter top rushing to the two. Surprisingly to Naruto, she wasn't focused immediately on Sasuke's wounds, but instead his own. Finally acknowledging the severity of Sasuke's wounds, however, Naruto nudged Sasuke's limp body towards her, the gesture snapping her back into focus on the more serious issue at hand—the remaining Uchiha was home at last. And he was dying.

She grabbed Sasuke's body and carried it to a nearby stretcher, shouting loudly for assistance from generally anyone who was nearby.

"Don't just stand there! Give me a hand, will ya?! He's _DYING_!! Get over here, stat!!!"

From there, the rest was a blur. Naruto himself had already experienced a lot of blood loss—more than what the Kyuubi could compensate for—and his wound to his arm, the most severe wound on his entire body, had yet to cease bleeding.

Finally succumbing to his own blood loss, Naruto promptly collapsed onto the hospital floor, a sight which made Sakura, whom had still been looking up at him from time to time during her healing of Sasuke's wounds, stop what she was doing to go help him out instead, leaving Sasuke's injuries to several other medics to tend to for the time being.

Using some more of her chakra-enhanced strength, she lifted Naruto onto another stretcher and allowed her hands to hover his chest, the healing chakra glowing it's natural green hue as she slowly sewed his wounds together, stopping his blood loss. It was incredible effort on her behalf considering her mind was currently in turmoil at the entire situation at hand.

_'Sasuke?! Oh for the love of kami! Naruto-baka!! What the hell were you thinking?! You could have been killed! You know that Sasuke is Akatsuki now!!'_

Her anger only made her pump her chakra into his wounds faster, the rush of energy causing him to slip in and out of consciousness mumbling incoherent words along the lines of _"we finally did it",_ _"Sasuke's finally back",_ _"I kept the promise, Sakura-chan"_, and of course, _"now we can be a family again!"_

She sighed at the falsehoods within each thing he said. For one thing, _THEY_ didn't do anything; _HE_ was the one who brought Sasuke back to the village.

Second, Sasuke was back, but what would become of him? Would he get executed for his crimes, would they seal his chakra off and prevent him from being a ninja for the rest of his life? Would he only wind up leaving again?

Third, she honestly didn't truly even _WANT _Naruto to keep that stupid promise that they had kept since their childhood! Sasuke was a bingo book criminal for kami's sake! He has a bounty on his head worth more than the entire Hidden Leaf Village!—not that you could actually place a price on her precious home, of course.

And finally, she knew in her heart and mind that there would never be a family-like bond ever again. If anything, Sasuke would only hate them now more than ever, not that she really gave a damn either way. A part of her wanted to walk over there and throw salt on his wounds, at least, the more grudge-filled part.

_'Things from here on out are only getting worse, I can see that already.'_

She inwardly groaned. She really was not in the mood for this kind of drama in her life right now, considering her busy schedule at the hospital had been building up a lot of undesired frustration from the pink-haired kunoichi.

Finally, Sakura sealed up the last of Naruto's wounds with perfect precision, of course, and ordered from one of the other medics that he be placed in a room to rest. Sasuke, on the other hand, had a ways to go considering the extent of his injuries.

_'Damn Naruto, what did you do to him? He doesn't have any traces of Kyuubi chakra on his entire body so…did you honestly defeat him using your own strength? Amazing…Heh, you never cease to amaze me, baka.'_

It took her several minutes before finally she was able to locate all of Sasuke's internal damage and get right on repairing it all one-by-one. Eventually, his wounds were healed and he was simply diagnosed as unconscious.

Sakura gave direct orders to have him placed in a private room with his chakra reserves sealed away immediately until the Hokage could decide what would happen to him from there. He was also to be placed in restraints at the arms, legs, and waist to avoid him escaping again should he regain consciousness sometime in the night.

Sakura needed some time to think now, and she decided to do so in his hospital room. After all, it wasn't like he was awake to notice let alone mind her presence.

* * *

"_**The air around me still feels like a cage  
**__**And love is just a camouflage  
**__**For what resembles rage again..."**_

* * *

_'I wonder what's going to happen next anyhow. I mean, I highly doubt Shishou will go easy on him…that is, if she doesn't kill him first.'_

She flinched visibly at the thought of her teachers possible and likely reactions, all of which involved her fist at some point or another.

_'Man, he looks so different now – older. Then again, we're all older now, aren't we? It's been five whole years since he's been gone…'_

She looked over at his unconscious and restrained body, watching as his facial features looked so peaceful and yet empty. It was as if he were dead, minus the breathing part.

_'Sasuke…was it all worth it in the end? Did you find the power you were so desperate to find? And who the hell are you now?'_

From what she had seen during their few brief encounters over the years, he had grown colder hearted towards them. He was willing to kill them all, if need be and he was determined to destroy their bonds with one another more than anything.

_'Do I still love him?'_

She wasn't sure anymore. It's hard to love someone like Sasuke. Then again, some women and girls do it every day. There really is no easy explanation for it, other than being in love. But love wasn't something that a shinobi was supposed to feel because love was an emotion that would only hold them back.

_'Not to mention, of course, that it _hurts _to love you, Sasuke-kun…It always has because…you push so far away that we can barely hold onto you even in our hearts…'  
_

* * *

"_**So if you love me, let me go.  
**__**And run away before I know.  
**__**My heart is just too dark to care.  
**__**I can't destroy what isn't there."  
**_

* * *

She was partially afraid of the monster he had become over the years. He murdered Itachi, but never returned. She wondered if he felt affection towards any other human being besides himself now that he was older but she probably may never be sure.

Her head was so cluttered that eventually she had become so overwhelmed that she had fallen asleep in the visitors chair at the opposite end of the room. And sleeping there, she remained the entire night, as a nightmare played itself out the entire time.

And he was the biggest monster in it.

* * *

The next day she awoke to a fully-conscious Sasuke, whom was sitting upright in his hospital bed simply staring at her. She was scared speechless the moment their eyes locked with one another but surprisingly enough, he didn't seem anxious, angry, or anything like that. In fact, his face was calm, with a hint of indifference mixed with something else she couldn't quite place. It slightly unnerved her.

"I see you're awake, Sasuke-k—SAN."

Thankfully, she stopped herself from saying _'-kun' _in the prefix of his name. He stared at her silently still observing her as if she were some fascinating new discovery of his that he had never quite envisioned before.

"Sakura…"

His voice had taken her off guard, almost causing her to slip into a flashback of the last time they had been together, both residing as loyal leaf shinobi. The moment just before he knocked her unconscious and left her on a bench.

She gritted her teeth at the memory, as it only brought up several more to follow, all of which involved him inflicting pain upon her and the people she loved. Pushing it to the back of her mind, however, she responded to him softly.

"Yes?" She asked softly, trying to hide her change in mood, though she failed miserably to succeed in doing so.

He apparently noticed her change in expression as he had raised a single eyebrow at her in curiosity at her sudden mood shift.

"Why are you still here? Don't you have anything better to do."

That hit a nerve.

"No, Sasuke, considering I'm you're primary medic for the time being and most likely, knowing Tsunade-shishou, permanently."

She gritted her teeth. She knew that would be the most likely outcome. She hated it, too.

"Get out," he ordered, growing more annoyed with her mere presence the longer she spent near him.

"No," she responded boredly, her eyes never leaving her chart as she continued writing notes down on Sasuke's condition, something she had been doing the entire time she had been talking to him.

"I said leave," he ordered again, the tone in his voice tinging with even more visible annoyance.

Finally fed up with his idiotic, childish, and rather annoying behavior, Sakura walked up towards his bedside, leaning her face down towards him. He thought for a split second she was going to kiss him or something idiotic that he would consider to be a _typical Sakura _type thing to do, but instead, she started whispering.

"Before you start barking out the orders Hun, remember who's strapped to a hospital bed and drained of all of their chakra."

"Tch. You talk big, Sakura, but you're still as _weak__ as always_," was all he responded with and her cool was burnt away, and replaced with pure and utter rage. And then _it_ happened.

Slap!

Yes, she slapped him right across the face. And not a typical womanly anger-ridden slap across the face—no, I'm talking chakra-enhanced, anger and rage filled, going to leave a mark tomorrow and the next day, kind of slap. He hissed at her in pain, unable to grab his face nor stop her, and settling for caressing his cheek with his shoulder.

He deserved it, and he knew that. He didn't, however, expect her, of all people, to be the one to do it. Slapping _him_ took guts, and that was something he had no idea Haruno Sakura possessed. At least, not whenever it came to him. Then again, people change, right?

"Feel better?" He asked, his face no longer throbbing but still stinging a tad bit. She merely glared down at him before gaining a calmer, more casual expression.

"Not really. But it's enough…for now."

Once again, Sasuke was shocked at her words, seeing a completely new and improved Haruno Sakura. He was curious now as to what else had changed about her and so he decided to try and see something else by eying her head to toe, giving her a complete once-over. This didn't go unnoticed by Sakura, however, who simply smirked at him, proud at all that she had achieved.

"I am the head medic here by the way, in case you weren't already aware. Thus, I am in charge of your health now. Don't think that you can walk all over me again or get me to succumb to your will, because I wont. In fact, doing so may cost you a few broken bones. Remember this Sasuke—I have the power to heal you, or to end your life. Do not underestimate me."

He stared at her blankly, hardly phased by her speech on the outside, though inwardly he found it rather amusing for some reason. He had assumed that had any other person been saying that to him, he would have killed him instantaneously, but hearing it from a woman with pink hair, it was all just too damn humorous to him to take seriously. Go figure that even today, he still underestimated her beyond necessity.

"Tch. Whatever. Where's Tsunade? Doesn't she need to give me my _'punishment'_ now?" he sardonically asked.

Surprisingly enough, at that very moment, the busty hokage burst through his hospital door both filled with fury and cockiness that rivaled his own tenfold.

"Welcome back Uchiha, enjoy the trip?"

Tsunade found herself rather amused at the circumstances of the entire situation, causing him to merely glare at her.

"Ah yes, well, you're punishment is still yet to be determined so in the meantime you're chakra is sealed completely and you are probationed here until further notice. Your body, from the looks of your medical chart, was left in severely bad condition, especially where your chakra was concerned. Since your chakra is being sealed off, it wont have time to properly heal itself. Sorry, but we have to do it as a cautionary reason. That is why I am assigning Sakura to personally take care of you, considering all of the other staff members pretty much feared the mere thought of caring for _you_. Any questions?"

He continued glaring, giving her a straight up deadpan look of 'no' that couldn't possibly be denied.

The news made Sakura sick to her stomach from nervousness and stress maxing up to the highest possible amount in her entire body but she hid it well on the surface. It turns out, Sasuke wasn't the only one who was a professional at hiding how they felt and what they were thinking.

"Alright. Well then, Sakura, you may proceed caring for him, though from the looks of it, he should be fine to return to the Uchiha compound soon enough…hmm…the compound wouldn't seem like an ideal place, however, considering it isn't actually located INSIDE of the village…Mmm, Sakura…?"

Sakura lurched again, knowing exactly what Tsunade was hinting at. Finally letting out a long sigh, she answered the unspoken question for her.

"Of course, Tsunade-shishou. Sasuke can stay with me for the time being at my house…"

"Arigato. Well then, in the meantime, I'll be off deciding what the hell I'm supposed to do with you, brat!"

Once Tsunade was gone, the two shared a quite awkward moment of silence between one another. Surprisingly enough, Sasuke was the first to break the silence, with something that almost gave Sakura a heart attack.

"Hn. It's nice to see you're not _ENTIRELY_ useless anymore… _Sakura_."

Sakura shivered. Something in the way he said her name gave her goosebumps all over her body. She didn't respond to his statement however, her blood feeling as cold as her mind did empty.

She left the room without saying so much as a "thank you" for his feeble attempt at a compliment, wanting to get far away from the area as soon as possible. Besides, her shift had ended roughly about ten minutes ago and she was long overdue to get home and change into her night clothes.

However, before she did anything, she had one tiny pit stop left to make. She began walking down the halls of the trauma hall of the hospital, passing several rooms to her left and her right along the way before finally reaching her destination. Before even getting an opportunity to enter, she heard a boyish shout at a fellow hospital staff member from a familiar voice.

"…I don't care what Baa-chan ordered you to do with me! I want to know where the hell Sakura-chan and the teme went!!"

Sakura knew the voice immediately.

_'Naruto.'_

She rolled her eyes at his stubborn nature before smiling softly at his intentions behind it. Finally, she put on her best 'angry face' with as much practice and intent behind it as she could possibly muster and slammed his door open, though truth be told she couldn't actually be truly angry at Naruto. After all, he was only stating his concern…in his own Naruto way.

Of course, Naruto wasn't in bed—as had been ordered due to his injuries. In fact, his uninjured arm was currently trying to damn-near claw his bandaging off of his injured one, a sight that made a vein in Sakura's forehead twitch and her impulses were nearly forcing her to punch the idiot through a wall.

"What the hell are you doing out of bed, Baka?!"

Both Naruto and the nurse attempting to restrain him turned to look at Sakura, whom was gripping her clipboard nearly to the point of snapping it into two pieces.

"Sakura-chan!" he whined. "Tell her to let me the hell out of here! I want to see the teme! How is he?!"

Sakura let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose, having already expected the questioning, though she still had a small sliver of hope that Naruto would be unconscious still or something. Kami hated her – it was official.

"He's fine. He's awake but I doubt he wants to see anyone let alone you, Naruto."

She winced inwardly and her spirits dropped tenfold at the look on Naruto's face. She didn't mean for it to come out so harshly, but the words betrayed her.

"…I didn't mean like that, Naruto. What I meant is that he needs to rest some more before he can talk really to anyone. He's probably gone back to sleep by now anyhow."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding but he still held that dejected look in his facial features. He knew Sasuke would be beyond pissed at having been defeated, but he also knew that Sasuke would want to kill him for bringing him back here, of all places.

She wouldn't tell Naruto that Sasuke had been forced to live with her during his probation; it would only hurt his heart more than it already has been. It was a fact that she wasn't pleased with in either case considering she was still pretty pissed at Sasuke and that mere slap to the face was in comparison to a pin prick compared to what she felt he truly deserved.

"Naruto, just get in bed and stay there for me, okay? Your arm is still…" She stopped mid-sentence as she watched him finally peel the bandage revealing nothing but some dry blood and not as much as a scar remaining.

_'Damn Kyuubi! Still, I want him here for observation.'_

"Naruto, just—"

"I know, I know, Sakura-chan. I'll stay here, I promise. But first thing tomorrow, I'm going to see the teme!"

She let out another sigh, this time in defeat, knowing how determined Naruto was at setting things right between himself and Sasuke so that Team 7 could hopefully one day be a team again; a hope she knew in her heart was simply a fantasy. But who was she to crush his hopes and dreams?

"Thank you, Naruto. I'm heading home, I'm beat. I've run out of chakra and I'm sick to my stomach now. You know how it is. Anyways, goodnight ahead of time. Stay in bed! And please, for the love of Kami, quit giving my staff a hard time!!"

Naruto winced outwardly and nodded his head in agreement and understanding. With that, she walked out closing the door, and proceeded to head home. She was truly exhausted and drained of her chakra, so much that she had to settle for walking home the old-fashioned way—without chakra-enhancing her speed. Of course, it would take longer than usual, but at this point she didn't care.

Finally, she reached her apartment. As soon as she put the key in the door and unlocked it, she was finally home-free. She went to her bedroom and grabbed her nightclothes before going into the bathroom to take a nice, warm shower.

She turned the water on to a setting she was comfortable with—only to have it revert to comfortably cold (just her luck)—and stepped in the shower. The temperature wasn't as comfortable as she had hoped, so she made it as quick as possible.

Once she was dressed, she put her bloody clothing into the washing machine and stepped into her bedroom, only to nearly have a heart attack at the site on her couch. A smirking raven haired idiot who escaped from the hospital, from the looks of it.

"Sasuke! What the hell are you doing here?!" She nearly screamed, though, now that she thought about it, she honestly wasn't too too surprised that Kakashi's prized pupil had escaped from the hospital, most likely in refusal of staying more than 24-hours there.

He looked at her with a lazy expression before answering.

"I'm not staying there."

She rolled her eyes and dragged herself to her bedroom to grab some extra pillows and a blanket to sleep on the couch, knowing he needed her bed to recover properly.

"Alright Sasuke, get into the bed please? What the hell were you thinking leaving the hospital?! Your injuries…have…re-opened, I see. Come here!"

Sasuke stood and began limping towards her, his hand tightly covering his stomach, as she held out her own hands, which were now glowing pale green with healing chakra. She had finally regenerated a little bit of her chakra reserves back, at least, enough to reseal his most fatal wound which had reopened on the way to her house.

Once the wound was closed, she walked into her bedroom and grabbed some clean bandaging out of her medic's bag.

As soon as she came back into the living room, she tossed it onto the couch and began walking towards her kitchen area. Taking a washcloth out of a drawer, she then went to a cupboard and grabbed a large bowl. Filling it with water, she finally returned to the couch where Sasuke was now sitting, his arm still draped over his stomach gently.

She started to unwrap his bandaging slowly, peeling off the drying blood carefully as to not re-open the wound, and then started dabbing at it with the washcloth. He winced in pain as she added some rubbing alcohol, a feat which although it really wasn't necessary, she still got a kick out of the reaction it caused. Call her a sadist, call her whatever you want. She didn't care. She was still _a little_ bitter.

And she had every right to be. How would you feel, being Haruno Sakura, having to take care of Uchiha Sasuke, after everything he'd done to you? The man standing before her nearly killed her not long ago; he left her out cold on a bench in the middle of nowhere.

She wanted to hate him for that. She wanted him to suffer so badly for it, that he would never do anything a fraction of what he had done to her. But alas, she couldn't. She could never bring herself to inflict harm upon him intentionally—unless he were to do and/or say something stupid presently. But as for his past mistakes? She let them go. She would always just let the past go. How couldn't she? She was a decent human being, after all.

"Sakura," Sasuke started, Sakura freezing in place, bandaging in one hand and his arm in the other. She didn't answer him, but instead, she threw him an exhausted look silently asking "what?".

"You're spacing out." He finished calmly, a bit quieter than before. She gave him a strange look before looking down at his arm which was covered in a few layers too much of bandaging.

"Damn…G-Gomen…"

Just as gently as before, she undid the extra layers of bandaging and secured it to his arm. He honestly considered berating her half-hearted job done on his arm's bandaging, but then thought twice about doing so. He was a rude person, but that was crossing a line that he knew he had no right to even go near.

Instead, he decided to perhaps try talking to her, considering the two hadn't seen each other in years; hadn't spoken on friendly terms; and they hadn't simply communicated period. He was curious about what she was thinking as she over-bandaged his arm. He wondered if she would even tell him the truth about what it was, if he asked. So, he gave it a shot.

"What were you thinking about?"

His question startled her inside, simply because she had always known him to be a quiet person. He was never a social type of person, let alone one to initiate a conversation with her. That thought in mind, she figured 'what the hell' and decided to answer him truthfully, but bluntly.

"You." She replied coldly, but calmly, no expression readable upon her face. Her eyes were so cold, he noted. Her face was so blank that it was almost…familiar to him. Deciding that he was even more curious now, he decided against not pushing her to answer his questions by simply asking her a more specific one.

"What about me?"

She paused a moment, thinking back at what she had been thinking exactly, as well as how she wanted to word it. Of course, the answers came instantaneously to her, and inwardly, she grinned triumphantly at how badass, in her opinion, they would be.

"Just about how big of an asshole you still are. That, and how amazed I am with myself that I ever liked someone of…_your_ _stature_."

Well that was harsh, he thought. But he knew he deserved it. He knew she was too good for him, back when they were 12-years-old, after the display of devotion she always had showed for him. He was an avenger and in his life and destiny, there was no room for her. There never could be, until Itachi was dead. Now, Itachi WAS dead, and Sasuke wasn't sure if he wanted her in his life, even if as a friend, now that he was back in the village.

He had no intention of actually leaving again, and knew that it would take a long time for the village to accept him again, let alone his once-friends. He figured Naruto would still be there for him, but he didn't really care much about that fact as it stood. Perhaps that was his problem, he mused to himself. He just didn't care. But even so, something drew him to Sakura. Perhaps it was her drastic change from the time they were Genin.

"Arigato, Sakura."

She cringed.

"I hate it when you thank me, Sasuke," she whispered more to herself than at him. Even so, he decided to respond to her.

"I see."

With that, she stood up, putting away her medical supplies in her bathroom, leaving him on the couch. Before going back out, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and couldn't help but stare. She was pale – more so than usual, and she wondered briefly if he noticed that, let alone if he cared. Then again, she found herself not _wanting_ him to care. Shaking those thoughts out of her mind, she coolly left the bathroom and was met with Sasuke staring at her, as if in anticipation. She let out a small sigh. This was going to be a long night.

She sat on a nearby chair and looked at him. His fingers were threaded within one another resting at his eye view and he simply looked at her—or rather, through her, it seemed—and there was an uncomfortable silence shared between the two of them.

Finally, he was the one to break their silence, though subsequently, it was at the same time that she had also decided to do the same.

"Sakura—"

"—Was it worth it?"

He blinked at her question.

"…Was what worth it?" He responded.

"Revenge. Was it worth it in the end, Sasuke? All of the hatred and vengeance…did you find whatever it was you were looking for? Did it make you happy?"

He was at a loss for words for a moment. First of all, he hadn't expected her to ask that question, let alone as calmly as she did. He voice was calm, he noted, but it was laced with a hint of merely _having_ to know an answer, for this was a situation that unintentionally dragged her in and made her involved the moment he said his first "thank you". The moment he knocked her unconscious, the situation involved her, and he knew that. He'd known that for the last five years now.

"It wasn't…what I thought it would be. The situation changed, Sakura…Itachi…wasn't who I thought he was. The events of my past didn't take place the way I had perceived them as. And I murdered the only family I had left. I'm no better than him. So to answer your question, no, I don't feel better. It's not as simple as that. It isn't as black and white as I thought it was."

* * *

"_**Deliver me into my Fate—  
**__**If I'm alone I cannot hate.  
**__**I don't deserve to have you...  
**__**Ooh, my smile was taken long ago,  
**__**If I can change I hope I never know..."**_

* * *

His answer to her was honest. She could tell that from the get go. What reason would he have to lie to her? Not that she really cared if he did or not… It was just that hearing the truth from him, as much as he had given to her, was more than a nice thing.

_'I loved you from the moment I met you, Sasuke. And even worse than that, I just realized that I still do. This is going to be the most miserable times of my life, living with you—I can feel it.'_

Her eyes shined in sudden inner pain and turmoil, and she walked away from him to her small kitchen nearby. Thinking he hadn't noticed this, of course, Sakura thought nothing of it. However, he DID notice it. He noticed everything right now. And it was driving him crazy.

"Do you want something, Sasuke?" She asked, ripping him out of his silent reverie. He noticed that at the end of his name, there was no 'kun'. Little did he know, there would never again be a Sasuke-kun that leaves her mouth. She couldn't bare the doors that the mere suffix on his name would add to her heart and life. She would appear to be weak again before him, and she would NEVER do that again.

"No, thank you."

She faltered with her hand wrapped around a teacup, for only a second, before taking the porcelain mug out of the cupboard.

"...Alright."

Deciding suddenly that she didn't want any tea, she put the cup away and felt like an idiot for going into the kitchen for nothing. She came back into the living room empty handed, he noted, but he never said anything of it, not really caring.

"Well Sasuke, I'm tired. You can have my bed for the night until we can figure out more appropriate sleeping arrangements for the both of us. I'll most likely clear out my guest bedroom tomorrow when I have more energy and then you can sleep there, okay?"

He nodded. Taking that as all the confirmation she needed, she sat down on the couch and he began walking numbly back towards her bedroom, expecting the room to be decorated in pink. Surprisingly, it was dark. And not dark as in being dark with just the lights out. ]

No, her bedding was black and her walls were red with the Haruno crest painted above her bed. It was very clean, as well. She wasn't a girly girl and he found, ironically, that he liked that trait about her. Crawling into bed, Sasuke fell asleep with ease, for the first time in years not paranoid about someone attempting to kill him as he did so.

* * *

**A/N: **And that my friends ends chapter one. I don't know if I should continue this and will only do so if you like it. Thus, comment. By the way, the song featured in Bold Italics is called "Snuff" by Slipknot. It's a great song, shockingly to me, and you should listen to it. It goes with this story perfectly (again, I'm shocked. I started writing this story before I ever even heard of this song but err yeah.) In this story, the song will probably pick back up in much later chapters, if I am persuaded to write as much. I hope you guys liked it. :)

—Nic


	2. Restless

**Author's Notes: **Well, here's chapter two. I barely got any comments for chapter one and so I pretty much am assuming it wasn't that great, or it hasn't been popularly read. I'm not sure which it is but please people, review.

This story is very personal for me because it is based upon a real-life situation that has recently screwed my entire world up, in an instance where I *am* Sakura, and this asshole of a guy *is* Sasuke, so to speak (though in actuality, Sasuke's a better person than said guy could ever be, even if he is a killer…yeah, this guy was THAT bad).

This is a coping story but I've applied it so much to the anime that it's warping my entire real life situation around. But there is going to be a lot of truth to this story regardless. Anyways, here's chapter two. This should be a long story but it may not be updated quickly together as it is a painful story to write. Then again, that factor is based upon how much inspiration and how often I need to vent my pain out though, isn't it? Anyways, on to the disclaimer…

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.

* * *

The night was dragged on endlessly it seemed for Sasuke who found himself to be restless within his thoughts of the events of everything that had transpired upon his forceful return to the place he had once called "home". For the most part, he berated himself for being defeated by someone such as Naruto, simply for the fact that Sasuke considered Naruto to be beneath him in social status. But then again, his so-called "social status" was pretty much destroyed at this point as the lone Uchiha survivor now, wasn't it?

He had successfully managed to drag his clan's "good name" through the mud, beat it off of a rock, drown it in a river, and then buried it in a hole somewhere with all of his hatred.

From the beginning of time itself, back when the shinobi nations' clans ruled one another and there were not hidden villages, or Kage's in power, the Uchiha clan was a clan full of nothing but traitors—just like him. Starting with Madara Uchiha and ending with Sasuke and Itachi, there was a long line of nothing but bloodshed, power thirst, hatred, and pain. He figured it was genetic. Itachi had told him that during his final moments, or at least something along the lines of it. And now, he was finally beginning to understand what it all meant.

Finally, Sasuke understood why his brother told him always that he "lacked hatred"—it wasn't because Sasuke actually couldn't hate anything or anyone quite enough—but rather, it was because he didn't WANT Sasuke to be filled with hate. Itachi, as young as he was during the time of the Uchiha clan massacre, knew one thing that proved to be true: Hate breeds war. And THAT was precisely what Itachi had wanted to shield his younger brother from all along. Unfortunately for him, that didn't exactly work out how he had planned.

Itachi's legacy could never be heard now, especially not by Sasuke. Sasuke's goals were still too far buried in the darkness of his own heart in order for them to result in goodness of generally any kind. His hands were too stained with blood now and his purity, as little as a shinobi could keep alive, was for the most part, gone.

Team Hebi was dead. Orochimaru was dead. Kabuto was missing. And Madara was still at large. Everything that Sasuke had transpired to and turned to during his descent into darkness wound up dying. He didn't know what would happen now that he had been caught. Hell, for all he knew, the council would probably wind up sentencing him to death for his crimes. And he certainly had committed a lot by now. Treason. Murder. Attempted murder… Even if he WANTED redemption, at this point in time, he just couldn't see it happening.

He was still weak and still nearly out of chakra. He could feel every single point where his chakra flow had been halted and it was currently driving him insane. For someone who has been able to feel their own chakra from early childhood on, this was certainly a sick and twisted punishment. But he was a liability and it was absolutely necessary.

Suddenly, Sasuke was torn from his thoughts as he heard shuffling from the next room. He assumed Sakura was awake by now and decided to make his presence known to her as well. Standing up carefully beside the bed, he slowly began walking towards the door leading to the hallway which in turn lead to the living room area.

Surprisingly, when he went into the hallway, she was awake. He wondered idly to himself why she wasn't moving around, thought it explained a lot why he hadn't sensed her being awake. She was staring at the floor with bloodshot eyes, clearly indicating that she hadn't slept any better than he had. She barely even acknowledged him until he cleared his throat, and the way she had cast her eyes up at him miserably.

_'What the hell happened to her last night?'_

He idly thought to himself, looking down at her from his standing position in the hallway.

"Tough night?" He asked with a smirk. The death glare she shot at him indicated that indeed she had suffered a night of hell, thinking thoughts of whatever miserable things they might be.

"Wanna _talk_ about it?" He asked sarcastically, his smirk still in place as he found himself extremely amused with her discomfort for some odd reason. He always _WAS_ a bit of a sadist like that.

"Go to hell, Uchiha." She snapped back at him, causing his smirk to broaden.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" He responded, playful sarcasm laced all throughout his tone. This time, instead of answering him, she made a tight fist trying hard not to shatter several of his bones in a blind rage. She really needed to get a hold on her anger issues but right now, he was making that very difficult.

"Of course, not like it's a far fetched wish of mine. Then again, you don't look so hot yourself. Thinking about the people you've murdered? Oh wait, I forgot, 'Mr. Avenger' is nothing but a heartless, soulless, coward who cares nothing about the people around him no matter how much he hurts them. Pardon my rudeness."

That hit a nerve. However, he didn't say anything about it nor did he show any bit of reaction to her whatsoever, other than responding with a sardonic 'hn'.

_'Gee, some things never change, do they?'_

Last night was horrible for the both of them apparently, although it had been even worse for Sakura. Although her chakra was drained and the fact that she was as tired as hell, the main factor remained that she just couldn't close her eyes without having horrible mental images and nightmares, ones that would probably scar her for life from then on out.

* * *

_**::Flashback::**_

_Sakura closed her eyes for the first time that night, not long after Sasuke had departed from her living room. Finally, she thought, she could have some rest after her backbreaking day at work. However, much to her dismay, the moment she finally fell into a small slumber, the most disturbing and strangest of thoughts immediately came to her mind._

_Sakura was walking through a dark forest alone, her normal shinobi attire on and her chakra full and humming. She didn't know for sure in this dream of sorts if she was on a mission or just wandering around, but the area looked vaguely familiar. Everything around her was silent—too silent for a forest, she noted—and that immediately had her on alert._

_Pulling a kunai from the holster strapped to her thigh, she went into a defensive stance. Not very long after, she heard the most heart wrenching and pain-filled screams that she had ever heard in her life. Turning her head over in the direction of the noise, she was confronted with a horrifying site that she never in her life wanted to see again. It was Sasuke standing over top of a bloodied Naruto, kunai twirling in his hand with a smirk on his face. _

_Naruto was looking up at Sakura with pain filled eyes that were pleading for her to help. She glanced from him to Sasuke, only to be met with a smirk. Sakura immediately rushed over to Naruto's limp form and began checking for a pulse, Sasuke not budging from where he stood._

_Naruto was covered in a shower of kunai, the main source of his pain being one lunged directly in his heart. She knew the wound looked fatal, but still she had a shred of hope that the wound was treatable. _

_She continued searching him for a pulse, but screamed in horror when she couldn't find one. Before she had the opportunity to turn around towards Sasuke, she felt a sharp pain in her back. She recognized the feeling immediately. Sasuke had stabbed her in the back with a kunai._

_'Sasuke-kun!' She mentally shouted. _

_She nearly screamed his name aloud as she awoke, but was grateful to herself that she had not, knowing that it would awaken him in turn and she would have a lot of unwanted explaining to do. Hell, she wouldn't have been surprised if he smirked at her and became suspicious that she was having _inappropriate_ dreams about him instead of nightmares. After the way she had followed him around like a dog during their Genin days, she knew that he wouldn't put the thought past her._

_Unfortunately for her, that was only the first of many horrifying nightmares that she was met with, all of which either consisted of something gruesome happening to Naruto, at Sasuke's hand, or herself—usually a stab in the back of some sorts—again, at the hands of Sasuke. After that, she gave up and just sat up on the couch for the entire night, in the same position, with her knees pulled up towards her chest._

* * *

She looked up and noticed that he was staring at her, almost as if he were waiting on some sort of response. Unluckily for him, she was so mentally and physically exhausted from sleep deprivation, she had gotten distracted with recollection from the events that had taken place in her subconscious from the night before.

She pondered a lot what those dreams had meant. Did she think that he was going to betray the village again? It seemed likely to her considering he had done it once and didn't want to return in the first place. But still, she didn't understand why her subconscious would take action and deprive her from sleeping over it. That sort of thing simply had never happened to her before. She would more than likely discuss it with Naruto later and see what he thought about it.

That reminded her...

_'Shit, I need to go see how Naruto is doing today! But…UGH! I didn't sleep at all last night, I probably look like a disaster! I should probably go check on that right about now considering Sasuke seems to have gotten distracted…Then again, I wasn't any different…that conversation was doomed to go nowhere…err…right, anyways…bathroom.'_

She stood up and began walking towards her bathroom. She didn't make it very far when a hand gripped her upper arm tightly stopping her in her tracks.

_Sasuke._

She turned around on her heel carefully looking at him and was shocked to find that he was looking…away from her? It was as if he was thinking things through before he made any other movements, which, she supposed, was a typical thing for him to do considering it WAS Sasuke.

"…Sasuke?" She asked softly, not really offended by the rough gesture, but rather, confused by it.

Her voice seemed to tear him out of his thoughts and he looked up at her, determination embedded deep within his eyes.

"Sakura…you have been underestimating one major thing about me, during my absence…"

Sakura looked at him curiously, confusion written all over her face.

"W-What do you mean?"

Sasuke sighed.

"I've never killed anyone who didn't have it coming to them. I've never once slaughtered an innocent person. That is all."

She looked at him with shocked eyes, registering fully what he had said. Was it true? Did he actually spare the lives of innocent people just to keep from dirtying his hands more than they already were? It made sense, she supposed. What logical purpose would he have to actually kill without a just reason?

He released her arm immediately, his eyes darting towards the hallway, cuing her to just go wherever she was going. She was curious about what had made him stop her like that just now. However, she also knew that he wouldn't answer any of her questions about what he was thinking by stopping her like that, even if she did press the subject on. He was stubborn like that. And _weird_.

Sakura did her best to push it out of her mind because quite frankly, she was too mentally exhausted from the night before. She walked into the bathroom and the first place her eyes lingered to was a mirror on the wall. It was official. She looked half dead.

Her face was paler than usual, resembling a certain artistic shinobi she knew, and her eyes had bags under them, and were about as red as Sasuke's sharingan. She splashed some cold water onto her face and it did little to clear her look of exhaustion. After towel drying her face off, she emerged from the bathroom.

Sasuke immediately looked up at Sakura the moment he heard the bathroom door handle turn, his shinobi senses tuned as sharp as ever. Calmly, she looked over at him with a thoughtful look in her eyes. Placing her index finger up towards her chin, she began to ponder something.

"Hmm…I wonder if Tsunade-sama wanted me to keep you with me at all times…or if it were okay to leave you here alone? Well, I don't wanna risk anything so…go get dressed…Oh, wait, I forgot, you don't have any spare clothing…We'll need to go buy you some today, then afterwords, I have somethings at the hospital, and a few other places, that I need to take care of."

She paused to giggle a bit.

"They're not gonna be too happy when they see you out and about, Sasuke. Do tell me how you plan on explaining just why you're not in your hospital room where you were assigned to be."

He looked back at her with a bored, blank expression.

"I'll just tell them what I told you—I'm NOT staying there."

_'Simple enough, I suppose.'_

She shrugged and started pulling her shinobi sandals on. She opened the door and ushered him to come with her, which he did with no obligation other than a miserable look in his eye. He really hated being told what to do, _especially_ by a woman with pink hair.

The two left the house and began at a slow walking pace down the streets of Konoha together. The pair received odd stares and whispers from many of the villagers whom were also nearby walking the streets.

"Isn't that Uchiha Sasuke? The prodigy who left the village to train with Orochimaru?" One villager was heard whispering to another outside of a small restaurant.

"What's Uchiha doing with the Hokage's apprentice?" Another man whispered to his wife whom only shook her head in confusion.

"Beats me," the man's wife replied, "I heard that she used to be in love with him back when they were still teammates."

Sakura groaned at that one. How many people knew of her past feelings in this village anyhow? Sasuke also heard the rumors and smirked cockily at them, knowing there was truth to everything he'd heard so far, including that bit about how Sakura used to feel about him. He wondered for a moment if she still felt the same way, though he had absolutely no idea why he even cared.

_'I don't care.' _He told himself. _'Sakura means nothing to me. The sooner we get this living situation sorted through with the Hokage, the better it will be for everybody.'_

"I heard that they're living together now. The Hokage's apprentice must be _very_ happy."

_'What the hell was that supposed to mean?!' _

Sakura thought angrily, a vein becoming visible on her forehead as she made a tight fist with one of her hands. Sasuke, on the other hand just smirked.

_'Ah, so the rumors begin, eh?'_

"Ano…Sasuke-kun…"

_'Damn it, I slipped up!'_

Sakura cringed inwardly at her big mistake, unable to help herself considering it was a force of habit to add the -kun to the end of Sasuke's name after having done so for so long.

"Hm?" He answered with a tinge of amusement in his voice, finally noticing she added the -kun to his name, just as she did when they were children.

"Earlier, when you mentioned that you had never killed anyone who didn't have it coming…if that were true…why did you attack Naruto? That seems pretty hypocritical, don't you think?"

_'Ugh, stupid Sakura! What were you THINKING?! Of COURSE he wouldn't agree with you, it was HIS idea in the first place…'_

"Naruto is the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. The Akatsuki had their own motives for wanting him. I was simply following orders."

Sakura made a distorted face in confusion at him.

"Orders? By who, Sasuke? Who could possibly convince _you,_ of all people, to do _anything._" She asked, feeling all the more curious as well as quite a bit more angry knowing he would so carelessly endanger the life of his once-best friend.

"That is none of your business, Sakura." Sasuke replied with an amused expression.

"Oh, the hell it isn't! You were going to endanger Naruto's life and the lives of thousands by handing Naruto over to the Akatsuki! Did you ever consider what they were going to use the Kyuubi for?! UGH!! I could skin you for this, you know! Fucking bastard…"

"Hn. As if."

_'Anyways…if he isn't going to tell me anymore than that, I'll just find out from Tsunade-shishou's reports after Ibiki-san finishes interrogating Sasuke… Speaking of which, when were they planning to do that? Nobody had even mentioned an interrogation yet so maybe they were still making arrangements for it? I don't know. All I know is that…Oh hey look, we're at the store—damn it! I'm too distracted today! I hate sleep deprivation…Though, maybe I'll sleep better tonight…If not, I could always ask Tsunade-shishou to give me something to help keep my head clear…'_

Sasuke and Sakura casually walked inside of the clothing store together. Sasuke headed back towards the Men's section while Sakura sat casually on a chair near the entrance. It was a small store, so she didn't have to worry about losing him—even though she doubted he would try anything. He didn't seem to want to escape, for some reason. And she didn't get that.

Why didn't Sasuke take every opportunity he could to try to escape, if he didn't really want to be in Konoha in the first place? It would make more sense, even though she would never let him get away with doing so as long as she could help it.

Finally, Sasuke came to the front counter with an armful of black t-shirts and shinobi slacks, as well as a few other minor things, such as boxers. In his hand, he held a pair of shinobi sandals as he stared at Sakura—who seemed to be too lost in her own thoughts to even notice he was finished—calmly. Finally, after realizing she wasn't going to notice him anytime soon, he decided to try to get her attention by force.

"Ahem…Sakura," he spoke clearing his throat and successfully gaining her attention. She blinked several times before finally looking up at him.

"Oh, you're done?" She asked reaching down to fumble through her wallet. Pulling out a fairly large wad of cash, she stood up and began walking towards the counter. Sasuke eyed her curiously, shocked that she had been carrying so much cash on her person the entire time without him even realizing it. Noticing his confusion, Sakura merely shrugged.

"Tsunade-sama gave this week's paycheck a bit of a bonus because of our living situation now. This is simply to help feed and clothe you, as well as help me out with the rent and such. It's your money, I'm just in charge of holding it for you. But I don't really mind if you want some of it…do you?"

Sasuke paused a moment then answered with a relatively fair proposition.

"Just give me half of my amount. You can hold the rest for groceries and such. That way, WHEN I'm not with you," he made sure to put a big emphasis on 'when', "I can buy myself food in town and anything else I would need if necessary."

Sakura nodded her head in understanding and handed him half of his money. Sasuke paid for his clothes and the storekeeper placed them in shopping bags. Once Sasuke and Sakura thanked the man for his services, they left the shop.

Sasuke began leading Sakura in a strange direction towards a smaller street filled with only a couple of shops. Sakura looked at him confused, having never shopping in this particular district of town. When he finally stopped to enter a store, she watched him with curiosity.

The two were greeted by a friendly looking shopkeeper who looked at Sasuke with great interest.

"Ah yes, may I help you sir?" The older gentleman asked Sasuke directly, in a cheery tone, noticing Sakura looked slightly 'not there', in a sense of she was casually looking around and avoiding any means of eye contact.

"Do you still carry the Uchiwa Crests?" Sasuke asked, causing the older man's eyes to widen a fraction. Finally, it clicked in Sakura's head just where they were—an embroidery shop.

"H-Hai. They're in storage…we haven't sold any in years so we just packed them away. I'll go get you the box?"

"Hai. Arigato." Sasuke replied as the man scurried off into a back storage room, searching for a box labeled _"Uchiwa Crest Emblems"_.

Meanwhile, Sasuke and Sakura waited patiently for the man to return with the box filled with Uchiha crests. They couldn't see what the older man was doing in the back room, but they heard a lot of rustling around, as well as the sounds of various objects being slid around.

Finally, the shopkeeper's voice was heard emitting loudly from the back room, as he began to address Sasuke in regards to the emblems.

"I remember years ago when a young man close to your age came in here on business from the Uchiha clan. He said that he was here on 'official clan orders' to get several hundred for his entire clan. It seemed so silly though for a boy his age, he couldn't be much older than thirteen…" Sasuke's stomach turned in knots, though the only visible sign of his change in mood was his jawline, which tightened greatly at just WHO the man was implying.

_'Itachi.'_

"…It's a shame," the man continued, "what happened to that clan. The last I heard, everybody was murdered save for one person…"

_'This man is clearly a civilian.'_ Sakura mused to herself. _'He talks too much about the little things.'_

"…And to think, that same boy who was so polite and well-spoken, and who had come into my store just about two months beforehand, did it all."

_'Yup, definitely Itachi.'_

"I heard that the lone survivor left the village as well. Sad, really. I wonder if he's figured out that revenge will only lead him into more despair?"

_'Aha, so not everyone is aware that Sasuke has returned to the village. Now, won't this be interesting?' _

Sakura inwardly chuckled to herself, imagining the look on the shopkeepers face once Sasuke did something bizarre to let the man know just who he was.

Finally, the shopkeeper had found the box. He hurried up and brought it out to the counter top, quickly dusting it off and gently peeling it open, just to double-check its contents. Once the lid of the box was peeled open, just as expected, all eyes looking inside were met with several dozen of Uchiwa Crests varying in different sizes, all neatly organized and stacked, save for a few that had moved during their packing and unpacking.

Despite what Sakura had thought, Sasuke did nothing to expose his identity to the shopkeeper. Whether it was that the man's words didn't quite reach him, or that he simply didn't care, she was not sure.

"Ah yes, that will be 13,500 yen…Umm, demo…why are you interested in buying the Uchiha emblem's, anyhow?"

_'And there it was. Maybe Sasuke will react to him NOW.'_

Sasuke slowly cast his eyes towards the man, his sharingan blazing brightly, causing the shopkeepers own eyes to widen greatly.

"Y-You're…"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

_'Talk about an overkill.'_

Sakura rolled her eyes as Sasuke laid the money down on the counter. Taking the small box under his arm, he lead Sakura out of the store.

"Arigato for the small detour." Sasuke said begrudgingly. He didn't like to thank people for much unless he deemed it absolutely necessary. Sakura blinked.

"Umm…It's no problem, really. Do you need to go anywhere else now, or…?" Sasuke simply shook his head 'no' in response.

"Since that is out of the way, we can go wherever you needed to, then we can go to the Hokage's office. I have some things that I would like to discuss with her concerning this…_living situation_. Maybe she's feeling a bit lenient today."

_'Go figure, he's miserable with me.'_

Sakura gave a dejected look, but it went unnoticed by Sasuke. Then, it hit her—why does she even care if he's miserable living with her or not? Wasn't it she who wanted HIM gone? That's right…she hated living with the arrogant, Uchiha bastard. One small ounce of civility shown from the likes of him couldn't change the fact that he was _still_ a rude bastard.

"H-Hai." She responded.

The two began walking down one of Konoha's many streets at a slow pace, Sakura leading Sasuke towards the hospital—her original destination. She knew that he wouldn't be too happy to be near a place where Naruto was at the moment but she knew that the two of them had to either resolve their issues with one another and talk like reasonable human beings, or else nothing would be solved. There was absolutely no question, it had to be done.

The two former male teammates had a lot to discuss considering the events that had transpired over the last five years. Her biggest problem would be to keep peace between the two, and not allow them to kill one another.

_'This should be fun.' _She mused.

From the area in Konoha that she and he were in now, she guessed that it would only take about five more minutes at the pace they were traveling in before the hospital was within eye-distance. That was a good sign so far. Absently, Sakura thought amongst herself.

_'Why isn't Sasuke objecting to going to our destination? Has he forgotten how to navigate around the village during his absence? I mean, it HAD been five whole years since he had been here but still… Even if he HAD forgotten, Sasuke isn't an idiot. He's sure to figure out on his own that we are heading to see Naruto-kun. So then, why isn't he objecting? Does he actually WANT to talk to Naruto? Maybe. I mean, it is possible, considering they WERE once friends. And also, from the sounds of it, Sasuke has more of a conscious than he is willing to let on. Perhaps he feels guilty. Maybe I'm just putting too much thought into it… Oh well, there's only one way to find out.'_

Along the way to the hospital, the two had even more stares, as well as finger-pointing and whispers, directed towards them from the villagers. Sakura groaned to herself. The rumors would be starting regardless, not like she really cared much about them, considering most of them were either true, close enough to being true, and/or only partially true. Either way, she paid them little-to-no mind.

When the hospital finally came into view, Sakura's heart began pounding with nervousness. She really did not want any fighting going on between the two here of all places. It was, after all, a hospital for Kami's sake.

_'No, fighting between these two WILL result in the breaking of several bones, if it transpires today.'_ She thought to herself with the tightening of her gloved fist.

Finally, it was the moment of truth—Naruto and Sasuke would be reunited on a peaceful basis.

* * *

**Facts: **

- 13,500 yen is equivalent to just a little bit more than $150 USD. I Googled it.

- "Demo" means "but", or "however"

- And "Uchiwa" is the type of fan featured on the Uchiha crest.

**Author's Note: **Well, that ends my story. The final page count was just barely 9 pages (8½ to be specific). Remember to review and subscribe—I've decided to continue this story. I do hate leaving stories unfinished after all. As for "Yours To Hold", for those of you reading it, expect updates within the month. :)


	3. Reunion

Sometimes, facing your problems head on isn't always the smartest approach, especially if they involve a loud-mouthed blonde and an mood-swing-prone Uchiha.

* * *

"Sasuke-teme!! I swear to God, I'll fucking kill you!"

Naruto's screams emitted through the hall of a lone hospital room, a metal bedpan and table was sent flying into the hospitals many hallways.

_'So much for **peaceful**...'_

Naruto was _angry_, to say the _very_ least. Sasuke and Sakura had just climbed the last of the several flights of stairs that lead to Naruto's floor and walked into his hospital room. Naruto, of course, was already awake, and waiting on Sakura but not expecting to see Sasuke, at least, not so soon.

It wasn't seeing Sasuke that angered him, but rather, the conversation that had initiated between the two. Naruto wasn't the brightest of people, and so, instead of steering the conversation between the two in a very blunt, point-blank direction, and Sasuke's also point-blank answers were what really angered him.

* * *

_**::Flashback::**_

_Sasuke and Sakura had just arrived in Naruto's hospital room, Sasuke with his hands tucked into his shorts pockets, and Sakura with a clipboard in her hand. She had hoped that things would be going over smoothly between the two former friends but in the back of her mind, she also knew that there was far too much tension between the two that was in dire need of being dealt with._

"_You!" Naruto shouted with an accusing finger pointed at Sasuke, whom in turn only smirked back at Naruto._

"_Me?" _

_Sakura looked between the two worriedly. She really did NOT want to break up a fight, especially not in a hospital, of all places. But alas, the two had some much needed talking to do and as much as she WANTED to give them privacy, she knew that they would try to kill each other. Again._

"_Sakura-chan," Naruto whined, "what is he doing here? Shouldn't he be in like…prison or something?"_

_Sakura raised a single eyebrow at Naruto. Wasn't it HE who had trained so long to capture Sasuke and bring him back? She knew in her heart that Naruto never **truly** gave up on his promise to her, but still—to hear that Naruto thought that Sasuke belonged in a prison cell, which, by all means, he DID—it was just very shocking nonetheless._

"_Hn. Looks like your out of luck, Dobe. I'm staying with Sakura." _

_Sakura cringed. She knew now that he was being rude and fighting dirty with Naruto. After all, it was no secret about the way Naruto had always felt towards Sakura. The last few years, the two had grown closer to one another more than anyone could have imagined possible between the two longtime friends._

_And also, everybody in the village—apparently, from the sounds of things earlier on today—knew about her past feelings towards Sasuke. And Naruto was smart enough, she knew, to be able to piece together something quite unpleasant regarding the two's living situations._

_This time, Naruto didn't have a clever verbal response, but instead, looked to Sakura for a silent answer. She gave him one, though it wasn't the one he was hoping for. Tears brimmed his eyes and he looked away._

"_I'll be checking myself out of the hospital today," Naruto softly said after a short pause. "I'm completely healed. You can look for yourself if you want to, Sakura-chan."_

_Naruto's voice was very monotonous. It was heart wrenching to her that SHE was the cause of his pain right now, but in all honesty, this wasn't a situation she had much control over. This was, after all, orders from the Hokage. Otherwise, she would have never allowed Sasuke within the same vicinity as her. For her own sanity's sake, as well as the sake of her hating him with all of her being for everything he did, she wanted nothing to do with him ever again. Why should she?_

_Sakura looked back at him disdainfully, knowing he had been injured horribly during his battle with Sasuke, but also knowing the Kyuubi probably healed all of his wounds, just as always. In a way, she was grateful that the nine-tails was inside of Naruto simply because it made her worry less about him whenever he would become injured. That was the only reason, of course._

_The three remained in silence for the next few minutes. It was awkward, to say the least, and Sakura was beginning to wonder idly what the two were thinking. She knew Naruto's mind had to be cluttered, especially now that Sasuke revealed that little bit of information about the two living together. She knew it hurt Naruto; she could tell by the expression he had on his face, as well as the look in his eyes—those questioning eyes that looked up to her for answers which she could hardly bare to give._

_She wanted to reassure him how much she hated living under the same roof as Sasuke; how this would only be temporary and that it went nothing beyond orders—because it didn't. But instead, she found herself sharing an awkward silence with her two teammates—if you could even call Team 7 a team anymore._

_Speaking of Team 7 and it's members, Sakura idly decided to go visit Sai later on that day. He never did quite get a chance to meet Sasuke on friendly terms and knew that Sai's lack of ability to kindly interact with others would be the perfect revenge for Sasuke upsetting Naruto. Perhaps if she deflated that ego of his, just a little, things would be okay for her._

_So lost in her reverie, she was startled when Naruto spoke to Sasuke, his voice cracking a bit from lack of use. Had he really been quiet for that long?_

"_Why did you do it, Sasuke?" He asked. Sasuke simply blinked at him before responding._

"_Why did I do WHAT, Dobe? You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that, idiot." Naruto cringed at Sasuke's insults, still not quite feeling on a friendly basis with him yet._

"_Why did you try to kill me again?"_

_Sasuke paused a moment, contemplating how he could explain his motives to Naruto. His options, unfortunately for him, were very limited. He could either be honest and blunt about it, and probably piss Naruto off greatly, or he could sugar coat things up a bit and lie, which still had a pretty good chance of upsetting Naruto. Finally, he decided after a moment's thought that he would go with the former and just be blunt._

"_I was following orders. Akatsuki needed the Kyuubi and I obliged."_

_Naruto gritted his teeth and tightened a fist._

"_Did you WANT to do it?"_

"_Yes."_

_Naruto's closed fist came swinging up knocking a nurses table out into the hallway, taking a bedpan with it, as he lunged towards Sasuke's face, his eyes holding a hostile and murderous intent._

"_Sasuke-teme!! I swear to God, I'll fucking kill you!"_

* * *

And that was what happened. Sasuke said something completely and utterly heartless, and Naruto snapped. Of course, Sakura couldn't blame the blonde for reacting the way he did towards Sasuke's harsh words of truth, because had she been in the same position as he had, she knew she would have reacted the same way herself, if not worse.

Now, it was taking all of her chakra-enhanced strength to keep Naruto from tearing Sasuke's face off. Naruto's eyes were filled with pure pain and sadness, mixed together with hurt and betrayal as he looked at his former best friend. Reality had finally struck him that Team 7 would never again be a team.

Their bonds were successfully broken and Sasuke didn't care about anybody but himself. It hurt, to say the least, but it was also a bit of a relief, small as it was, to know the truth finally.

"Sakura-chan, if you don't mind, I'd like to be alone now…" His words were simple enough to her—'please get Sasuke out of here'. Sakura was just about to comply before Sasuke interrupted her.

"I never," Sasuke paused, "I never intended to kill you in the beginning. I never meant to hurt you or Sakura when I left the village. For years, I've known how you two have been hunting me down so persistently and to be quite frank, it did nothing but annoy me. I had a goal to complete and I had no intentions of returning to this village until that goal was complete. However…"

Sasuke's eyes shifted in the opposite direction, Sakura and Naruto's eyes both wide in surprise that the usually quiet, heartless Uchiha was speaking more than a barely audible sound of 'hn' in response to anything they said.

"Something new came up and that had become a new priority. Naruto, I was working under orders from a certain man whose name I cannot mention, but I assure you that killing you was personally never my intention."

Naruto gaped at Sasuke. Was that honestly supposed to make him feel _better _about all of this? The man tried to kill him! Orders or not, that was beyond low considering that he felt as if Sasuke were a brother he never had.

_**'It was never my intention to kill you.'**_

_'Bullshit.'_

_**'I was under orders from a certain man whose name I cannot mention.'**_

"Sasuke…You don't take orders easily from anyone! Just who the hell would be powerful enough that they would command you to do something and you'd actually do it?!"

Sasuke stared emotionlessly ahead and began speaking in a monotonous voice again.

"I told you, I cannot—"

"Like hell you cant! Sasuke, whoever the hell you're protecting ISN'T here! So you don't have to worry about getting into trouble by telling us who the hell this guy is!"

Why was Sasuke being so damn difficult? It wasn't as if by telling them who was pulling the strings, Sasuke's life would be in immediate danger. There had to be something that wasn't being said involving this situation. Something was missing, and THAT had Naruto more baffled than anything else at this point.

"Sasuke," Naruto's voice cracked, "do you know…what the Akatsuki do with the Bijou once they retrieve their vessels?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto directly, taken off guard by his question.

"No, but I have a good idea—"

"They KILL us! They rip the Bijou, which is tied together with our souls, and in turn KILL us jinchuuriki! DOESN'T THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?! After **everything** that Team 7 has been through together, after all of the bonds that we've created; those same bonds that you have managed to—yeah, guess what—SEVER and DESTROY…after all of that, doesn't it mean a fucking thing to you?! You are so COLD now Sasuke-teme! Fuck! Being in the same room with you is like being in the same one as Itachi!"

By now, Naruto had Sasuke's shoulders gripped tightly in his hands as he tried to shake his former friend and rival out of the sadistic and heartless world that he'd been sucked into; a world filled with hatred and revenge. Even so, everything still seemed so hopeless. For in Sasuke's eyes resided a dead man.

Blankness. Emptiness. Coldness.

He was unreadable by the world and that's exactly how he wanted it. And it was driving Naruto up the wall with anger. Naruto did, however, notice Sasuke's eyes narrow as his body stiffened at the comparison with his nii-san. In all honesty, Sasuke wasn't angry with Itachi anymore for what he had done, but rather, he still blamed his frustrations on the Hidden Leaf Village. In fact, that is exactly why he never intended to return, other than to annihilate it.

"You know nothing, Naruto! Someone like you, who never had a family will never understand the ways that I have suffered! You will never know the things that Itachi has taken away from me! My entire family is GONE!" Sasuke shouted back at Naruto, his anger finally taking a hold of him.

"That may be so, Sasuke," Naruto spoke, his voice finally calming down.

"I may have never had the luxury of a family like you did, so I don't suffer the pain of that very family being taken from me but," he paused to look Sasuke in the eye.

"As far as I've ever been concerned, you have always been a part of my family. Team 7 has always been my family, and it's been yours too, whether you like it or not. Because we are the ones who cried for you! At least, Sakura-chan and I have. I don't know about that pervert Kakashi-sensei, as far as going as far as to cry over you is concerned, but for blaming himself? I know for a fact he still does that to this day. Heh, you always were his favorite. And I know that you may hate me for everything that I have done to save you, including bringing you back—"

"You're right, Dobe. I DO hate you." Sasuke responded matter-of-factly.

"You just don't get it, you bastard! Honestly, what is left for you to do, Mr. Avenger?!"

Sasuke paused, before softly responding to Naruto.

"Revive my clan. That is all I have left to do."

Naruto blinked at Sasuke in confusion.

"Then why the hell are you so damn angry?! You can do that shit here! Hell you could even do that with—"

"Dobe! You really don't get it, do you?! Konoha ordered my clan to be massacred! I would NEVER want to revive it HERE, of all the places in the world! You idiot!"

"Umm, guys?" Sakura tried speaking up, only to be ignored by the two arguing men before her.

"Konoha did that for a good reason, teme! Your clan was going to have a coup d'état on the entire village! Do you know how many people would have been slaughtered? How many innocent civilians who aren't even shinobi and cannot defend themselves?"

"Guys?" Sakura tried again to no avail.

"That was no reason, Dobe! There was NEVER a GOOD reason for this, not one that would EVER be good enough!"

"GUYS!" Sakura finally snapped.

They were in a hospital for crying out loud! And although Naruto was making a great point in regards to Sasuke, he was still screaming way too loud. And Sasuke wasn't being to quiet himself. This entire argument, although it was most certainly not pointless, it was going nowhere, and she knew that if she didn't separate those two, a physical fight was bound to break out.

Both Sasuke and Naruto turned to look at Sakura, finally acknowledging her with a look that simply stated a silent "what?", forcing her to resist rolling her eyes at them both for being so childish. Some things never changed, especially when it came to the rivalry with Sasuke and Naruto.

"Well," she started calmly.

"First off, keep it down, please!" Her eyes were focused on Naruto when she stated this, causing Sasuke to assume she was speaking to him. This, however, was certainly not the case. Sasuke smirked at her interruption but it was quickly wiped away when she decided to turn towards him and lay into him.

"As for you, wipe that damn smirk off of your face! You're only instigating him to scream at you. Tch. You're both like children, I swear!"

Sasuke really did not like her. Not only did she just berate him as a child, but as a whole, she has become his babysitter, and one thing Sasuke Uchiha hated more than anything was being treated like a child.

"Sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto replied in a tone much quieter than before. Sakura sighed.

"It's alright, Naruto. Just please, try to keep it down, unless you want Tsunade-sama to make sure that you are in here for six additional weeks."

Naruto gulped hard, knowing it wasn't an idle threat, before shaking his head abruptly 'no'. Before anyone else could say anything else.

"Anyways, I think it's time Sasuke and I went to see Tsunade-sama. Perhaps she'll be 'lenient', like you said, Sasuke and you wont ever have to look at me again."

Her eyes were as cold as ice as she said this; her face, expressionless. However, the tone in her voice betrayed her, and Naruto noticed the pain laced in her voice.

"Let's go," Sasuke responded with one foot already out of the door. Sakura followed him in tow, tossing a sorry look back at Naruto whose eyes softened at her.

_'She's still in love with him. I can see that now.'_

* * *

The doors to the Hokage's office were swung open roughly, forcing a vein to become visible on Tsunade's forehead.

"Uzumaki," she started, "so help me, this better be," she looked up and paused a moment, "good."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Sasuke responded with a smirk, causing Tsunade to scowl at him.

"What the hell do you want, Uchiha? I haven't decided what I'm going to do with you yet, in case that is what you are wondering."

"Fix this living arrangement. Now."

This caused Tsunade's eyebrows to shoot up with surprise.

"Oh? Are you not comfortable living with my apprentice?"

Sasuke paused. It wasn't that he was uncomfortable living with her. It was just… well… he wasn't sure why. All that he knew was that he didn't want to live with her any longer.

"I see." Tsunade responded matter of factly, though what she was so certain about all of a sudden was unknown.

"Well, I could always arrange for _**Naruto**_ to become your roommate." The little hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck stood in attention.

"And Kakashi has already declined ahead of time. His apartment is being renovated until who-knows when. Yamato doesn't _**know**_ you and quite frankly, well, that would just be awkward for the both of you. That leaves Sai. And you would probably kill Sai within the first 24-hours of living with him…"

Sakura smirked.

"And you are certainly not living with me. Right now, either being hospitalized or living with Sakura are your only choices. So which is it? Hospital, or Sakura? Or, we could put you in prison. Would that make you happy?"

Sakura's smirk dropped immediately and Sasuke's eyes shifted, knowing that he was in a tight spot and he was certainly taking the most luxurious way out.

For a moment, Sakura wished that he would say either the hospital or the prison. She didn't want to be near Sasuke any longer, or ever again for that matter. Living with him is impossible simply for the fact that it hurts too much. She hadn't noticed before just how badly she was suffering by simply living under the same roof as the boy she once claimed to love forever. And still loves, deep down in her heart.

"I'll stay with her." Sakura inwardly groaned.

_'Kami-sama really, really hates me.'_

Taking a deep breath, she softly began to speak.

"Fine. Let's go _home_ then, Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded and followed her out of the door.

As they walked down the streets of Konoha together, a question began to plague Sakura's mind up until the point that she just had to voice it to Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun," she started, but paused a moment to berate herself for another suffix slip-up.

"Hm?"

"If you knew that Tsunade-sama would refuse—which I KNOW you did—why bother asking her at all?"

Sasuke merely shrugged.

"It was worth a shot."

Sakura looked over at him puzzled.

"Well, if you dislike my apartment so much, why don't you just stay in the hospital? It's not as bad as you make it seem, you know."

"Because, I refuse to stay in the hospital, and certainly not in a prison cell. Your place is… _convenient_…at the moment. Besides, she'll eventually trust me enough to either let me return to the Uchiha Compound, or at the very least, allow me to rent an apartment."

Sakura's look changed from puzzled to confusion.

"But Sasuke-kun…"

_'Oh, damn it all to hell!'_

"How are you going to afford to pay rent? You know she won't allow you to take any missions. Though, knowing Tsunade-sama, she may consider giving you a form of unemployment funding. After all, she has given me a pay bonus to keep your stubborn ass alive."

Sasuke smirked.

"Glad to see that you're _**so**_ concerned for my well being, Sakura."

Sakura rolled her eyes at him.

"Tch, as if. If I wasn't under orders, I'd let you starve to death."

The two were gaining on the apartment by now and their pace remained slow and strolling. Since Sasuke's chakra would remain low, the could no longer move at a shinobi's pace—at least, not unless Sakura were carrying Sasuke around, which, of course, wasn't going to be happening anytime soon.

"That's so kind of you, Sakura. Really, and to think I was going to ask _**you**_ to help me revive my clan."

Skidding her heel in the dirt, Sakura stopped abruptly.

_'He's bluffing. That fucking bastard is toying with me.'_

Sakura swung her arm to slap Sasuke in the back of the head, however, his shinobi senses alerted him of the strike before she even had the chance to make contact.

"Don't even think about it, Sakura. You really do need to learn to take jokes better."

She glared at him as he held her arm firmly in his hand. She never felt more frazzled over another human being in her life. His clan revival statement was just unnecessary, and he knew that. It was absolutely cruel. Oh, how she wanted to slap the smirk off of his face right now.

"Go to hell, Sasuke."

"Yeah, you've mentioned that before."

"That's because I mean it!"

His smirk broadened.

"I'm sure you do."

_'UGH! Could he be any more infuriating?!'_

"Come on, Sakura_-chan."_

_'Who knew the bastard had a __**playful**__ side? Wait till Naruto gets a load of this!'_

"Tch, whatever. Teme."

Side by side, the two walked into the apartment they would now be sharing until who-knows when.

* * *

**A/N: **Ooh, so the tension is rising. Don't forget to review people. I like to know what you guys think.

Final page count: 8


	4. Confusion

**Author's Note:** Since I put a disclaimer on the first chapter, I've decided to just leave it at that; to give my story a bit more length on the word documents. Besides, I feel a little silly putting a disclaimer every time I write a new chapter, ya know?

* * *

A week had passed since Sasuke and Sakura had officially begun living together. It wasn't exactly a 'happy' arrangement, but neither of them could really complain all that much either. Naruto had long-since been dismissed from the hospital, but much to Sakura's surprise, he hadn't stopped by the apartment to see either her or Sasuke once.

It was a little strange considering that Naruto was the one who had brought Sasuke back to the village. She really had just assumed that he would be a lot more eager to bring Team 7 back together now that Sasuke was back in Konoha. After all, that had been his primary goal for so long, hadn't it? But alas, Naruto had been nowhere to be seen for almost a week now.

Sasuke's punishment had finally been decided as well. He would be placed on probation for almost a half of a year, but would also be allowed to rent an apartment within the next two months. That was a major relief for both himself, as well as for Sakura, because she wasn't sure how much more of his crap she would be able to take.

Sasuke wasn't much of a 'pest' to her, other than the fact that he truly enjoyed teasing her, in various ways, mostly similar to his little comment about her helping him 'revive the Uchiha clan'. That still had her unnerved even now, a whole week later. He would say hurtful little comments like that, which Sakura knew he never meant at all, nor would they ever happen in a lifetime. And it truly did kill her inside, over and over again. It was little comments like that which made Sakura want Sasuke out of her apartment as soon as possible.

Because Tsunade placed Sasuke on a heavy probation, thus prohibiting him from doing missions, he wouldn't be able to earn any money to pay for his bills. So, the hokage settled for granting him a small income that would be just enough to get by with.

* * *

The entire situation with Naruto avoiding both Sakura and Sasuke had Sakura extremely concerned. Sasuke, she could understand him avoiding, but why her? She hadn't done anything wrong to him, had she? That is what brought her where she was now—walking the streets of Konoha, of course with Sasuke in tow considering she wasn't permitted to leave him out of her sight. She knew that if she did, by chance, see Naruto, he most likely wouldn't be too thrilled to see Sasuke with her. But then again, she could be wrong.

The first place she decided to look was at the Ichiraku Ramen Stand—Naruto's favorite restaurant and hangout place. If Naruto was anywhere, it just _**had**_ to be there. Quickly walking down the streets of Konoha with Sasuke miserably in tow, Sakura headed to the ramen stand, only to find that Naruto was nowhere to be found. When she asked Teuchi, the owner of the stand, if he had seen Naruto, the older gentleman simply shook his head 'no' sadly, stating that Naruto hadn't been around for a couple of days.

Sakura thanked him as she and Sasuke walked in the opposite direction, navigating in the direction that they had originally came from, which lead to Naruto's apartment building—a place Sakura had regrettably forgotten to check beforehand. It was unfortunate for her that she hadn't thought to check there, because Naruto was there at the time, but had just managed to slip out whilst she was headed towards Ichiraku.

When she arrived at his apartment, she used a spare key that he had given her in case of an emergency to enter the apartment. She was disappointed, however, when she met with a messy yet empty apartment. She did notice, however, that Naruto's bed wasn't made, indicating that he _**HAD**_ in fact slept there last night.

She and Sasuke exited the apartment building just as quietly as they had entered in and Sakura began venturing the streets of Konoha, Sasuke still miserably following her in tow, as she searched for some familiar faces who may have an idea where Naruto could be.

So far, said first familiar face happened to be Shikamaru. Like most days, Shikamaru was strolling the streets of Konohagakure with his hands inside of his pockets, a bored expression plastered onto his face. Immediately, Sakura made a point to stop him in his tracks by calling out his name.

"Hey, Shikamaru!" She shouted, quickly grabbing his attention.

"Oi, Sakura-chan!" He responded with a small wave. Sakura immediately ran up towards him, Sasuke still following her close behind.

"Have you seen Naruto anywhere? I've been looking all over for him, but so far nobody's seen him."

"Naruto? Actually, I haven't seen him in a few days. It's strange really, considering I usually always see Naruto around the village. Sorry. I'll let you know if I do see him though, alright?"

Sakura frowned, knowing that Shikamaru was right about Naruto always been seen around the village.

"Hai, arigato."

Next, she decided to check at the local training grounds to see if any of the Rookie 9 were training there, or if she was fortunate enough, she may find Naruto there. With that thought in mind, she nearly dragged Sasuke, whom sought it necessary to complain the entire time about it, throughout the streets as she headed towards her destination. When she arrived there, she ran into Shino, Kiba, Akamaru, and Hinata.

"Hey, have any of you guys seen Naruto? I cant find him anywhere." Sakura said while trying to catch her breath. She had ran the entire way there with a renewed energy at the hopes of potentially finding Naruto finally. Hinata merely blinked at her before responding to her question.

"N-No. I haven't seen N-Naruto-kun around in about a week now. H-how about you, Kiba-kun?"

Kiba shook his head no. Shino pushed his sunglasses up further towards his eyes, which never left Sasuke's person.

"Shino?" Hinata asked her teammate who's piercing gaze never seemed to leave Sasuke, whom he continuously eyed suspiciously.

"Hai. I haven't seen Naruto-kun around anywhere either, Sakura-chan. Gomen." Shino responded.

This had Sakura even more concerned. Suddenly, she decided to head to Ino's parents' flower shop. Perhaps Ino or maybe Chouji had seen Naruto at some point. So, she dragged Sasuke by the arm down the streets at a running pace, to which he mumbled various curses at her causing her to simply roll her eyes at him. When they reached the Yamanaka Flower Shop, she was met by a smiling Ino and Chouji, whom were both sitting at the counter of the empty shop boredly.

"Ino! Chouji! Have either of you guys seen Naruto? I can't find him and we've been looking everywhere for him!"

"Hn. Don't you mean YOU'VE been looking for him? The only reason I'm here is because the hokage ordered you to never let me out of your sight, Sakura."

Sakura rolled her eyes at Sasuke's remark before averting her attention back to Ino and Chouji hopefully.

"Actually Sakura, I did seen him earlier today walking down a back alley nearby here, but other than that, I haven't spotted him since. How about you Chouji?"

"I haven't seen him in about two weeks, personally," Chouji stated in between bites of his potato chips.

Obviously, Chouji wasn't aware of Naruto bringing Sasuke back, or at least, that's what Sakura had deducted from his wary look towards the Uchiha, whom was standing calmly behind her the entire time. Sakura and Sasuke began walking away from Ino and Chouji to continue Sakura's quest to find Naruto, when she bumped into a very familiar body wielding a bright orange book in hand.

"Kaka-sensei," Sakura started with a blink, "umm, have you seen Naruto anywhere?"

Kakashi peered up from his Icha Icha novel to finally acknowledge her presence. Eying both Sakura and Sasuke warily, he finally decided to speak.

"Sure did," Kakashi causally responded causing Sakura's face to immediately light up.

"Really? Where is he?!"

Kakashi sighed behind his mask.

"I'm sorry, but I am not allowed to tell you that."

"What? Why not?" Sakura's face was immediately painted over with confusion.

"Because, he has requested specifically that I don't tell either of you that. He just… wants to be alone right now. Give him some space, Sakura."

Sakura's happy mood fell when she heard Kakashi's words. Naruto wanted her to leave him alone? But why? She knew that if she asked Kakashi why Naruto was upset with her, he would never tell her. He was a freaking ANBU at one point for crying out loud—her interrogation methods would be child's play to him.

Kakashi looked down at her with a sorrowful eye as he recalled the encounter he'd had with Naruto only two hours earlier.

* * *

_**::Flashback::**_

"_Kakashi-sensei…I could see it in her eyes that she still loves the bastard. After everything she and I had went through together two years ago, after everything I'd done for her over the years, today I've finally seen that none of it matters. Sakura-chan will never love me the way I love her. Nothing I ever say or do will change that fact. Look, if you see her, and I know she'll be looking for me, will you do me a favor? Can you just… keep her away from me? The same goes for the teme. Don't tell them where I am. In fact, don't tell anyone where I'm at. I really do not feel like seeing anyone else today or for a few days. I need some time to think. Only you know where I'll be."_

_Kakashi looked back at his blonde haired student remorsefully and simply nodded his head before walking away._

* * *

It was tragic, how Sakura just couldn't love Naruto in the way he loved her. It was obvious to anyone that he loved her with all of his heart, but she just didn't care about that – at least, not enough to enable herself to return the feelings. No, she was too hung up over Sasuke for the last five years to notice anything else. Including the fact that he didn't want her. Or that he probably never will.

Sakura decided to respect Naruto's wishes, as hesitant and reluctant as she was to do so. She knew that in time, things would blow over. Or at least, that's what she _**hoped**_ would happen. The final outcome, however, she wasn't certain of. And now, it was back to square one on what she was going to do today, especially now that she had to plan her entire day around being with Sasuke.

The worst part was, that it was her day off from working in the hospital – the one place where she was free from him, even if only a little. She really did hate that fact. At least at the hospital, Sasuke was permitted to wait for her in the staff waiting room, and she could go about tending to her patients in peace. But now, she had to parade herself around town, face pointed fingers and whispers from the villagers as they spread rumors about her relationship with Sasuke, and deal with the little problem that was his entire attitude. Oh yes, today would definitely suck.

And on top of everything else, she had absolutely nothing to do. She figured that perhaps Sasuke would like to do somethings around the village, but she didn't quite know how to ask him without getting some smartass response from him like 'Gee Sakura, I would love to tour a ninja village while my ninja skills have been taken away from me until kami-sama knows when!'

Sakura groaned. Today was going to be absolutely horrible—she could just _**feel**_ it!

* * *

They went home for the day, and neither had the slightest clue what they would do to pass the time. It wasn't as if they could train, considering Sasuke had little-to-no chakra left in him. Of course, the hokage had left enough to avoid too much fatigue but not enough to be molded for even the simplest of tasks, such as walking across water. Sasuke was completely powerless.

In some sick, morbid way, this amused Sakura more than anything else on the planet at the moment. There was just something about the mere thought of Uchiha Sasuke being rendered weak that made Sakura feel an inner triumph. Perhaps it was because of all of the times that he had labeled her as "weak". Or perhaps it had to do with his over-sized ego being completely and utterly deflated. Either way, she was thoroughly pleased with the current circumstances as they stood.

Sasuke felt a strange lurking sensation as he noticed Sakura's intense stare in his direction. From the direction of her eyes, he could tell she wasn't looking directly at him, and was most likely deep in thought, but still—the look she was giving him; it was as if she were looking straight through him, and that irked him to no end.

_'Just what the hell is she thinking about so intensely? It surely couldn't still be about the Dobe, could it?' _Sasuke mused to himself.

"You hate me," Sakura softly said, tearing him out of his thoughts.

_'Wait, what?'_

"Hm?"

Sakura paused. "I said, you hate me. I can practically feel that radiating off of you right now. It's very… distracting."

Sakura's voice was so pain-filled, that Sasuke _**almost**_ pitied her. Almost. Did he truly hate her? He didn't think so. She had never really done anything wrong to him during the time he'd known her, other than have that fangirl crush on him during their Genin days. But once she matured, he'd noticed that she really held herself up well, and that her pining over him was long-since over.

"What makes you think that I hate you, Sakura? You've never actually _**done**_ anything to me personally. Unlike that Dobe…"

Sakura's eyes averted to the floor beside him as she bit down on her bottom lip.

"Do you really need a reason, Sasuke-kun?"

_'Damn, I'm going to scream if I do that one more time_…'

"Hn. Of course I do. I don't hate anyone without good reason, _Sakura_."

There it was again—the spine-tingling tone of his voice whenever he said her name that made her just shiver. She wasn't sure what that was all about, and it had only happened twice, this being the second time. But still. There was something very thick and heavy laced into his tone of which she couldn't quite place. It was something akin to teasing mockery, but not in an insulting sense—if that made any sense.

_'The bastard probably does that on purpose, just like everything else…'_

"I see…"

That was all she could think of to reply. 'I see.' He did, after all, make a pretty decent point. But still… That didn't shake the feeling of thick, negative energy which was literally radiating off of his entire body. It was like he was trying to destroy her entire being just by allowing so much negative and raw emotions flow all over his body. It unnerved her. A lot.

"I'm going to go take a shower…" Sakura mumbled as she stood to leave.

"Hn."

Taking his brief response as her cue to leave, she stood and began walking slowly towards the bathroom. Sakura was feeling very depressed, and she wasn't exactly sure why. Technically Sasuke hadn't done anything to her as far as hurting her was concerned—YET; she still expected it and was thoroughly preparing herself for yet another blow to her heart. But still. Why was she feeling so helpless; so empty and drained of all source of life?

The water was cool, more so than she would have usually preferred, but she did her best to ignore it. The moment she stepped in the shower, she sat on the shower floor and wrapped her arms around her knees, hugging them closely to her chest as she rested her head upon them. She simply sat there for a long duration of the shower—just staring at the bathroom floor.

_'Kami-sama, I hate this. I hate living with someone who completely and utterly despises me. Maybe this would be easier if Sasuke considered me to be his comrade, at the very least, but still. Every time I'm in the same room as him it's like he wants nothing more than to watch me die. I don't know how much more of it I can take_…'

For nearly a whole hour, Sakura just sat there as a million thoughts raced throughout her mind.

_'What's gonna happen once he is allowed to get his own place? Will I ever see him again? Will he **want** to see me? No, why would he? I'm nothing to him except a burden of his past, just like Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, and everyone else Sasuke's ever known from Konoha.'_

_'Why? Why does he hate me so much? He said that I didn't do anything to him personally, and looking back on it he seems to be right, so then why? Why do I get this resentful feeling every time I'm in the same room as him?'_

_'I wish I could cry. This pain in my chest—it won't go away, no matter how hard I try to suppress it. Kami, help me!'_

A mile a minute. That's how fast her mind was racing. She was finally torn out of her silent reverie by a soft knock at the door, followed by the sound of Sasuke's voice.

"Sakura, are you okay in there? You've been in there over an hour and I haven't heard you move once."

Sakura's cheeks turned bright red as she realized that she had been just sitting there the entire duration of her shower. She hadn't even attempted to wash herself. She felt completely and utterly embarrassed, but with a forcefully relaxed tone, she responded to Sasuke.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, I just lost track of time. I'll be right out."

"Hn," Sasuke replied as he walked away from the door giving her some privacy.

Sakura hurried up and washed her hair and body before she stepped out of the shower, wrapping herself in a big, white, fluffy towel. Her eyes darted towards the sink where her change of clothes should have been, only to find that she had completely forgotten to grab a pair. Groaning aloud, Sakura's eyes darted towards the bathroom door.

_'Well, if I'm quite enough, he might not notice that I'm nearly nude… Oh, Kami… This is so embarrassing! How could I forget my change of clothes?!'_

Slowly turning the door knob with all of the shinobi stealth skills as she could muster at the moment, Sakura tip-toed out into the hallway, only to be met face to face with a stoic looking Sasuke, whom was preparing to knock on the bathroom door once again.

Her face managed to turn several shades of red as she stared at him, unable to move or do anything else, her entire body far too much in shock to function properly for the time being. Sasuke looked down at Sakura and immediately smirked. His eyes slowly dragged themselves down her figure and she shivered at the way he was looking at her.

"Well _**this**_ is certainly… interesting." He said softly. Immediately, Sakura panicked and began stammering.

"S-Sasuke-kun…! I was…taking a shower and…I forgot my change…of…clothes…?" She was cut off by his hungry stare which was directed to the little fold of the towel holding itself together as it was wrapped around her otherwise nude form.

"…Sasuke-kun?"

And he was so tempted to for once, in his entire life, lose control. Or more rather, lose all ability to keep control over the situation, and throwing all caution to the wind as he ravished her. But he had more self-control than that, and berated himself for even thinking something like that.

Sakura had made a completely innocent mistake. At least, that's what she had felt that she'd done. But now—the way Sasuke was looking at her—it was a very big contrast to how he was looking at her earlier. His eyes were glazed over with a look she couldn't quite familiarize herself with. But he knew exactly what he was feeling.

**_Lust_.**

Before things got out of hand, and he lost what little self-control he had left, Sasuke turned on his heel and began walking towards the guest bedroom—_**his **_bedroom, for the time being. He slammed the door shut, leaving Sakura more puzzled than she was before her shower.

Immediately, Sakura got dressed after that, in her night clothes. It was already late in the evening and she had planned on going to bed sometime early that night.

Sasuke glared at the ceiling of his bedroom, silently berating himself for his teenage hormones which he had done quite well to suppress in the past. His frustrations were only furthered when he heard a knock on his door.

"Umm… Sasuke-kun? Can I come in?" Smirking sardonically, Sasuke scoffed at her request.

"That depends, Sakura. Are you dressed this time?" Sakura's entire back went rigid before her shoulders slouched.

"Of _**course**_ I am. Why the hell wouldn't I be?" She responded.

_'Good point.' _He mused to himself.

"You know, you don't have to _**ask**_ if you can come in. This is _**your**_ house, Sakura." He said and she finally opened the door and walked towards his bed clad in shorts and a tank top. Damn, it was hard for him to try to ignore her like this.

"I know that, Sasuke. I just figured I'd grant you a little privacy since I can't do so generally otherwise. But then again, if you have a problem with that," she started with a large grin.

"Thank you." He responded through gritted teeth. Would she just go already? She was driving him insane right now with what she was wearing.

"Your welcome…" There was an awkward silence shared among the two former teammates. Sakura clearly wanted to talk to him about something and had no indication of wanting to leave until she did just that, so he was forced to bare with the site of her revealing night clothes.

"Sasuke-kun, look…" Sasuke noticed her very visible cringe as she caught herself adding the suffix to Sasuke's name. Sakura turned her head blushing furiously.

"Sorry, I really do hate saying that… it's just… it's become a very difficult habit to break over the years. That's all. Anyways, Sasuke look, I know that we're not on completely equal grounds with this living situation as it stands and I think that we should clear some things up right now. First, I know you hate me."

_'Hn, she deduced THAT from our little **incident** earlier?'_

"Second, I'm not trying to get you to love me like I used to. I've grown up since then. A lot. I've come to realize that you never have nor ever will feel that way about me and it's forced me to… change, both myself and how I act towards you on the subject of how I _feel. _If that's what you're worried about, then you don't have to! And you're welcome to stay here as long as you like! Because really, you haven't been at all a burden to me. In fact, in a strange way, I like the company! Just…"

Sakura trailed off, her eyes once again looking off at nothing in particular. She really didn't know where she was going with this conversation as it stood. She had absolutely no idea what point she wanted to get across to him, or anything. And she never really did know quite when to shut up.

"…And about earlier? Look, I'm really sorry about that! That was really embarrassing for me, I never usually do that! I…"

Sasuke's jaw clenched. He really did not want to discuss what had happened earlier with her, because that meant he would inevitably _**think**_about it, and if he allowed himself to do _**that**_, well, it was going to become bluntly obvious to her of what his feelings towards that was. He was, after all, a mortal man. He had needs that had been pent off for far too long for the norm of any other human being.

"…Sasuke-kun? Hello? Are you still listening to me?" Sakura asked while waving a hand in front of his face. He blinked at it a few times before averting his eyes towards her own.

Sasuke smirked, "Hn. Yeah, I'm listening."

She hated that word. Smug bastard, he probably actually _**was**_ ignoring everything she was saying.

"Anyways, like I said, about earlier…I don't know, it was very… strange… for me and I just wanted to make sure that there were no hard… feelings… about it…"

Sakura's tone slowed down as she noticed Sasuke's breathing became a bit sharper. Oh, there was definitely something _**hard**_ involved with what had transpired earlier, but Sasuke would be damned if he'd allow her to notice that. Still, from the change in his breathing patterns, he knew that she was already on to the fact that it had… _bothered_ him.

"Are you okay, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked placing the back of her palm to his forehead.

"I'm fine. Are you done?" Sasuke responded coldly towards her, causing her to retract her hand and sigh.

"Yeah, I'm done. Goodnight, Sasuke-kun. I'll see you in the morning." She said in defeat as she began walking towards the door. Once the door was closed, Sasuke let out a sigh of relief.

_'That was close.'_

* * *

**A/N: **So, the latest manga is depressing as all hell at the moment. That's all I have to say. Any thoughts? ._. Mine is that Sasuke is being a douche. BITCH GO HOME AND HAVE YOUR HAPPY ENDING! D:

Don't mind me, please R&R. 3


	5. Interrogation

The following day was filled with awkward silences, long pauses, and Sasuke deliberately ignoring Sakura by all means possible. It confused her to no end, really. Was it something she said last night? She was only trying to make their living situation more bearable for the both of them.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, barely getting any recognition from Sasuke other than a simple, barely audible response of "Hm?"

"Why are you ignoring me?"

And the truth was, he really, really did _**not**_ want her to ask that question. Simply for the fact that he did not feel like coming up with a clever enough lie as to avoid speaking of the _**effect**_ she had on him the night before. Truth be told, he still didn't understand it himself. But then again, this is coming from a guy who managed to completely avoid puberty altogether.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, but responded to her as bluntly as he possibly could.

"I'm not ignoring you."

Before Sakura could make a response, a knock was heard at her front door, grabbing both her's and Sasuke's attention.

"I'll get it," Sakura started but then she noticed Sasuke was already opening the door.

_'What the hell? How did he get there so fast?!'_

Sasuke was met with a smiling Sai, to which he scowled greatly.

During the time of his return, Sasuke had only met Sai a few times before. The most recent time was in the village, a few days after he was given his punishment. That incident didn't end pleasantly.

Sai had given a very long and pointed speech to the team about just why Sasuke, unlike Naruto, truly does NOT possess a penis, and ever since then, Sasuke has been on a silent rampage to kill him. Unfortunately, his probation, as well as direct orders from the Hokage disallowed him from acting upon it, at least, not without himself being murdered by the village leader herself.

_'Damn Tsunade…'_

"Sakura-san," Sai began. "I have direct orders from the Hokage that you come and see her with Dickless-san here."

Sai smiled that fake smile and Sasuke clenched his jaw tightly in response.

"Alright Sai-kun, thank you." Sakura said as she quickly began walking out of the door, Sasuke and Sai following her in tow. She then bid her farewells to Sai as she and Sasuke headed towards the Hokage's tower.

_'Hn. Sai-kun? Since when does she use formalities with my imbecile replacement?'_

The two made their way to the Hokage tower in little-to-no time at all. The trip was smooth as it was late in the evening by now, which meant most of Konoha's streets were clear of villagers and such.

Sakura still hadn't heard any word from Naruto, and she was beyond concerned about him. Naruto was never the type of person to avoid facing whatever was bothering him, which is what made this entire situation all the more worse.

"Sasuke-kun, will you hurry up? Tsunade-sama is going to blow a fuse if we're late!" Sakura shouted at her former teammate who was currently dragging his feet intentionally.

"Hn. Sorry, I don't have enough chakra to move at a more _**accommodating**_pace for you, _Sa-ku-ra_."

Sakura simply rolled her eyes. By now, she was getting far too used to his sarcastic attitude and demeanor. It was simply what made Sasuke, Sasuke. She didn't mind it at this point, at least, not entirely. There were still things—little thing—that etched their way underneath of her skin, but she did her best to ignore them.

Opening the Hokage's door softly, Sakura was surprised to be met with a room full of ANBU members, and Morino Ibiki, the head of the Torture and Interrogation Unit. What the hell was going on?

"Sakura-san," Ibiki began softly with a menacing grin as he stared directly at Sasuke. "I have strict orders to debrief the Uchiha of everything he knows, both about our village, and about the Uchiha Clan Massacre. We need to probe his mind using a special jutsu, I'm sure you know the one."

Ibiki's menacing smile turned into a full-out grin as Sakura paled. Of course she knew exactly which jutsu he was referring to. It was the jutsu that allowed him to enter the depths of a person's mind; to see their darkest memories; and it grants the jutsu performer the ability to _alternate_ and manipulate the memories, as well as erase, whatever they deem fit. She knew exactly what was going to happen.

Ibiki wouldn't erase Sasuke's trauma—that would spoil his own sick, twisted fun. No, instead, he was going to strap Sasuke to a chair and make him relive it. This was bad. This would be worse torture and more strenuous on Sasuke's mind than Tsukiyomi ever had been.

Sakura gulped and glanced over at Sasuke, who was glaring daggers at Ibiki. He knew that the initial interrogation would be taking place, he just didn't expect something out of the blue like this.

"Sakura-san, Tsunade has granted you permission, if you desire it so, to sit in on the interrogation as Uchiha-san's official medic—not as his teammate. Meaning, you cannot disclose of this to your _**other**_ teammate. I'm sure you understand why."

Sakura merely nodded her head. Of course she knew why she couldn't tell Naruto about this interrogation. Of course, his reaction would be beyond anger towards Tsunade, herself, and the entire ANBU, and it was also a top secret interrogation. This was ANBU work. Meaning, if she agreed to it, she would have to be working as an ANBU Medic.

In such situations, the mind probing jutsu wouldn't be used until the end of the interrogation. Before that, Sakura would be forced to heal whatever torture and injuries the ANBU and Ibiki would inflict upon Sasuke for answers. And knowing Sasuke, he would be as stubborn as hell when it came to answering any questions regarding the information he attained as a missing-nin.

Sakura's eyes darted to Tsunade for some sort of silent assurance, but was met with sympathetic eyes. She understood perfectly now—Tsunade had ordered this to happen. Whether or not she went with Sasuke during this interrogation meant the difference of life and death for him. If he refused to give them answers, they would take "unmentionable methods" of extraction to get the truth out of him. Things would be done to him that not even Tsunade herself could cure.

"Let's go, Morino-san." Sakura said solemnly as she gave a very sympathetic glance at Sasuke. Sasuke's expression was anxious, and nervous that only his former teammate would be able to notice. To everyone else, he was just as cold as ever.

* * *

In the downstairs area of the ANBU headquarters, Sasuke sat strapped into an interrogation chair, his face, arms, legs, torso, and hands covered in various injuries. _Razorblades._ That was Ibiki's current method of torture.

"I'm going to ask you again, Uchiha," Ibiki spat out glaring at the youngest Uchiha's impassive face. "What do you know about the masked Akatsuki member?"

"And I'm going to say this to you yet again, Morino—Fuck. You!" Sasuke shouted defiantly, causing Ibiki to give him a hard slap across the face, his lip starting to bleed from it's contact against one of his canine teeth.

Sakura was standing behind a one-way window watching the whole thing as she paced back and forth. So far, Sasuke's injuries were not at all life threatening, which meant she wasn't allowed to heal him yet. Ibiki was being crueler than cruel.

He was cutting Sasuke's entire body each and every time Sasuke showed defiance. Sakura had to give Sasuke the benefit of the doubt—he was standing strong against one of the most cruelest interrogators in the Five Shinobi Nations. That had to stand for something.

She knew that it wouldn't be very long before she was ordered to administer Truth Serum. So far, Sasuke hadn't answered a single one of Ibiki's questions and she could tell from past interrogative sit-ins with the man, his patience was running very, very thin with Sasuke's defiance.

She had to admit, whatever Sasuke was hiding, it had to be BIG news. Whatever he was hiding, she was certain he would be giving it all up with the Truth Serum. She was a bit nervous about having to use the Serum, however, because that meant that she would be interrogating him. This was completely medical, and it had to be done by a certified medical shinobi. Her. She was Sasuke's medic, meaning SHE had to do the dirtiest work.

She knew exactly what she would need to ask him once the serum was administered to Sasuke, and how to properly extract everything that they needed to know. Even so, however, the thought of having to delve into his deepest, darkest secrets would be going beyond personal. It would change their relationship forever, because the serum she would be using would allow him to remember the interrogation; remember himself spilling his own guts; and him being absolutely powerless to stop it.

"This is going nowhere." Ibiki mumbled to a masked ANBU member who didn't look too much older than she was, judging by his body type. Short, but not too short. Thin, but not scrawny. His entire stature just screamed off that he was in his mid-to late teens.

"Haruno-san, we're ready for you." Ibiki said with a scowl on his face.

Sakura slowly stepped out from behind the glass. Sasuke looked up at her strangely, wondering what she was possibly going to do to him. He didn't know about the Truth Serum. He didn't know what it would do to their relationship afterwords. Perhaps if he did, he would have given up information more willingly. Though it wasn't very likely, considering the fact that he _**was**_ an Uchiha.

Leaning down to whisper into Sasuke's ear, she said only two words. "Forgive me."

Sasuke looked up at her puzzled. Forgive her? For what. Then, he felt it. The tiniest of pinpricks that made his head begin to spin. He felt the dizzying effects immediately and knew right away he was being drugged. But why? What were they drugging him with? He wasn't feeling tired or sleepy, so it wasn't a tranquilizer. And they weren't going to poison him; that would just make no sense.

"What is your full name?" she asked as monotonously as she could.

"Uchiha Sasuke." He felt himself admitting things so much easier now, though his head told him to stop immediately.

"Do you know where you are right now?"

"Hai. The basement of the ANBU headquarters." This was an interrogation.

_'Shut the hell up, Sasuke! What are you doing?!'_

"Who is the masked Akatsuki member?"

_'BE QUIET!'_

"Uchiha Madara."

Sakura gasped aloud, but immediately masked her surprise with as much professionalism as she could.

"What do you know about the Uchiha Clan Massacre?"

_'NO!'_

"Everything started when the Kyuubi attacked the village. The village's leadership suspected my clan of being involved because of our Sharingan eyes. The Sharingan possesses the ability to control the bijou, as well as personal summons."

_'SHUT THE HELL UP, SASUKE! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!'_

"After that, the Uchiha lost faith in the village's government and began to plan a coup d'état. Itachi was tasked with spying on Konoha by my father, the leader of the Police Task Force. He worked as a double agent for the Hokage and in turn spied on the Uchiha. Itachi knew that if the Uchiha attacked the village, it would create weakness within the state, causing other countries to take advantage and that would eventually lead to a Fourth Shinobi World War. The Third Hokage tried to open negotiations with the Uchiha clan, but time ran out and The Third's advisers ordered Itachi to wipe out our clan."

_'OH KAMI-SAMA, SASUKE! SHUT THE FUCK UP!!'_

"Why am I telling you all of this, Sakura?" Sasuke paled as he glanced up at his former teammate. She felt her heart crack a bit right there by the fear and utter confusion laced in his eyes.

* * *

**::Flashback::**

"_Haruno Sakura, where do your loyalties truly lie?"_

"_With Konohagakure, and with Sasuke. I would follow him anywhere, just like I promised him."_

_Tsunade looked at her drugged student and shook her head in dismay. This would only get Sakura hurt someday, but at least she had said her loyalties were with the village. Otherwise, Tsunade would have been forced to strip Sakura of all of her Ninja rankings._

* * *

"Uchiha Sasuke," she swallowed remorsefully. "You have been given a drug that will force you to tell the entire truth as asked." Sasuke merely averted his eyes, prompting her to speak again.

"What else do you know about the Uchiha Clan Massacre?"

"Before the massacre, Itachi confronted Madara, who had infiltrated Konoha. Madara, whom had been shunned by the clan decades earlier, still held some resentment. Itachi offered Madara the chance to help him wipe out the clan, in exchange for promising not to attack Konoha, a deal which Madara accepted."

"And?"

"For fucks sakes, Sakura! You guys know everything that actually happened! Why the hell do you need me to tell you?!"

Sakura sighed. He was fighting against the Truth Serum and it was painfully obvious that the serum was winning. Still, the sooner this had to be done, the better it would be for him, and for her. It was killing her inside to have to sit there and watch him suffer like this; to relive the trauma inflicted upon him by his clan's shamed title and Itachi's own doing.

"What else do you know about the Massacre?"

Going into a trance-like state once more, the serum once more gaining the upper hand of Sasuke's control, Sasuke finally told her everything else he knew about the Massacre.

"Itachi and Madara slaughtered them all. My mother, my father; aunts, uncles, cousins; my grandparents. Then I came home, and the bodies… they were everywhere… in the streets. And then I seen Itachi. I asked him why he did it and he told me to measure his capabilities; because that's what he truly wanted me to believe so that I would hate him. And that worked! I hated him for so many years and then I left. I found out later that everything I had come to believe was a complete and utter lie. My clan was wiped out in order to protect the lives of innocents that they would have slaughtered during their rebellion. So there! That's everything I know!"

Sasuke's voice was pleading and Sakura felt guilt wrench in her stomach. Things were going to change the minute this was over. He'd probably either hate her, or block her out of his life even more than before. Nothing good could come from this. But, the interrogation wasn't over. And now, it was time for the question that would determine whether or not Sasuke would be executed or not.

"What were your intentions towards Konoha, had Naruto not have brought you back?"

"I was going to destroy everything. The village, the elder's, Naruto, you—there would be no more Konoha when I was finished."

Sakura gaped at Sasuke for a moment in complete and utter shock and disbelief. There was only one question left to ask him before she would be permitted to take him home with her.

"And what are you intentions now that you are being forcibly re-instated as a Konohagakure citizen? Think about your answer carefully Sasuke, because one false move, and they will erase everything in your mind about what had happened—they would erase your family, your memories, your brother—everything that has ever lead to a negative move on your behalf. But you are also instated to tell the truth."

"I haven't even thought about that yet. So I can't say."

Sakura looked up at Ibiki who merely nodded and Sakura began to undo the straps that had been confining Sasuke. His entire body slouched forward. They had been there throughout a great bit of the night and she knew that the serum only made him exhausted. Hoisting Sasuke's arm over her shoulder, she began leading him out of the ANBU Headquarters and the two began walking towards the Hokage's tower.

Once they reached Tsunade's office, Sakura slammed the door open, not even worried about her shishou's reaction after that entire ordeal.

"It's done. Can we go home now?" Sakura gritted out, and Tsunade merely nodded, waiting on Ibiki's report to come back.

* * *

Sakura and Sasuke made it back to their apartment shortly after due to Sakura lugging most of Sasuke's weight with her chakra-enhanced strength. This made traveling a lot easier on her because she was able to use her shinobi speed, rather than a civilian-type of of pace for once. She sat Sasuke on the couch and started slapping one of his cheeks noticing that he was dozing off in a drug-induced state. Sakura knew from personal experience that once a person whom had been injected with Truth Serum was allowed to fall asleep, they would be plagued with nightmares that were a match for even the strongest genjutsu's. She wouldn't allow Sasuke to suffer through that.

Normally, anyone who had the serum in their body, would be fighting back against the drug's affects naturally, which Sakura had hoped for. She allowed some of her healing chakra to flow into Sasuke's chakra stream and spread throughout the rest of his body, trying to find the key point of the serum's current path. She was shocked to find that he had become so out of it, that he wasn't even resisting the serum, allowing it to spread faster. That was what was making him fall asleep faster.

_'Dammit, Sasuke! Don't fall asleep!'_

Sasuke's eyes opened for a fraction of a second, then slowly started to lid closed again.

"Sa-ku-ra…" Sasuke barely managed to get out.

"Sasuke! Don't fall asleep! Please! I need to get this stuff out of your body first! C'mon, fight it!" Sakura pulled his shirt up over his head, allowing her easier access to his internal organs with her chakra.

"Come on, where are you!" She searched frantically, pumping as much of her own chakra to search throughout his body as she could. Slowly, she was feeling her chakra reserves draining lower and lower, but she knew she was getting closer to finding it.

"BINGO!" She found the source of the serum near his liver. She immediately pumped a large amount of her healing chakra into that area of his body to dissolve the serum, and it was instantly gone.

_'Phew!'_

Sasuke slowly started waking up, and Sakura grasped his chin in her hands as his head began lulling again.

"Sasuke, can you hear me?" Immediately, Sasuke jolted forward only to feel a sharp pain in his head. He clutched his head tightly with both of his hands trying his best to stop the pain.

"Gah! What the hell did you do, Sakura?!" Sakura placed her fingers to his temples and eased his headache and his hands immediately dropped to his sides.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke. I'm so sorry."

She knew that apologizing wouldn't be enough to make up for what she had done to him today. Nothing probably would. She knew everything now, at least, everything that mattered. He would have killed her and not even think twice about doing it. She finally knew how he felt about her. Hatred. He hated her that much.

"So, now you know." He spoke softly, noticing the tears welling up in her eyes as she stared at him in disbelief.

"Yeah… Now I know."

"I'm sorry." He knew that apologizing wouldn't mean a damn thing to her. He had no right after everything he had put her through.

"I'm sorry for everything, Sakura. There are some things…you weren't supposed to know."

Sakura smiled at him sadly as a lone tear began to fall down her cheek.

"Surprisingly, I don't hate you for it. I know that I should hate you for everything, but strangely, I don't. I can't hate you for how you feel Sasuke. I know you hate me, and Naruto. I know all of that, it's just… I care about you so much, that I can't hate you."

Sasuke reached his hand out towards her, wiping away one of her tears. She flinched in shock before freezing completely still.

"I'm sorry for everything that happened today, Sasuke."

Sasuke merely nodded. What more could he do or say? In all honesty, he was glad Sakura had been the medic with him, rather than some complete and utter stranger. That would have just been worse on him than anything else.

"I think… I think that I know now what my new primary goal is, now that I am back in the village." Sakura looked at him in shock and great curiosity.

"I'm going to revive my clan here. Under a mild condition that I must discuss with the Hokage—the elder's will be executed for their crimes, OR, at least not be allowed to meddle with my clan's affairs. I will be the head of the new Uchiha clan. I won't allow a repeat of what had happened with Itachi."

Sakura's heart immediately felt as if it weighted a ton. He was going to revive the Uchiha clan? Here? That meant…

_'He'd be finding somebody to help him… I have to stand by and watch him live happily ever after with someone else …Oh, kami-sama…'_

"Sakura, I need… will you… Ahh…"

_'Shit, how do you ask someone you do not love, whom you do not feel anything for, to help you revive a clan?'_

"I love you." He lied. Sakura's eyes widened.

"Will you help me revive my clan?"

* * *

**A/N: **Ooh cliffhanger. Yes, I'm evil. But I want to make one thing perfectly clear for future reference. There will be no happy ending. This is MY love story gone horribly wrong – a real love story… A heartache story. But this leads up to that. There will be love. There will be romance. And there will be lies. Pain and lies. This isn't a love story. This is a heartache story.

—Nic


	6. Frustration

**A/N: **So my lovely readers, here I am once again, giving you another chapter. I know, it took a few days, but eh, I had to work out my plot bunnies and bring down the hammer in mah head! Muwahahaha :3 Lawl. Okay, anyways, there was many ways I could have taken this chapter, but alas, this is the result of many late nights (or early mornings, however you would consider between 4 and 6 am). Sooo, tada! I know the song of the plot is "Snuff" and the lyrics will be picking back up in later chapters. Trust me, it's still technically a song fic... it's just a very long one. Haha. Anyways, enjoy the angst. :D

* * *

It's amazing how big of an impact a simple little lie can cause on one person. And saying something as simple a 'I love you' came almost naturally to Sasuke. He knew how to play his cards right whenever it came to Sakura. He knew exactly what to say to get her to bow to his every whim. And that would be her inevitable downfall in the end. Being submissive to any man seems to be most women's downfall, though, isn't it?

"...W-What did you just say?" Sakura asked, blinking a few times as she stared ahead at Sasuke in disbelief.

"I asked, will you help me revive my clan?" Sasuke repeated with a smug look on his face.

In all honesty, he expected her to immediately jump into his arms; embrace him, tell him how much she loved him. He expected an immediate 'yes' and the fact that she was hesitating so much, shocked him a bit.

"No." She said bluntly, averting her eyes away. Sasuke's expression immediately turned from smug to complete and utter shock. She said no? How? Why? Did she not love him anymore? Or was there someone else in her life that he didn't know about?

"Why? Is there someone else?" He asked calmly, trying to piece together just why she'd say a flat-out 'no', without having to ask her about it straight up. Sakura merely shook her head 'no' in response immediately after he asked, however, so that clearly was not the issue here.

"Then why not?" He asked, feeling a small pang of rejection; a feeling that was completely and utterly foreign to him, and quite frankly, made him unnerved. Sakura gazed up at him with stern eyes as she began to explain her answer to him.

"Because, Sasuke... You just came back to the village..." She paused gazing into his eyes with an immense intensity and seriousness.

"You left me on a park bench in the middle of the night."

Sasuke said nothing, allowing her to continue and hardly caring about what she had to say at the moment. Quite frankly, he knew everything she was saying was true. But it didn't matter that he already knew it. Because Sakura knew that he wasn't the least bit affected by it, and that fact pissed her off to the core.

"You tried to kill Naruto, and me!" She yelled at him, her inner rage growing by the second as she recalled just everything that Sasuke had done to both herself and Naruto over the last few years. That last bit was probably the most hurtful, and he knew that full and well. So, finally, he decided to speak.

"Sakura, you know my reasons for that." Sasuke said simply as he continued looking at her calmly and collectedly. Meanwhile, Sakura looked back at him with an incredulous look on her face.

"Do you honestly believe that there was any excuse for THAT?!"

Slowly, the urge to punch him into the next century came to her entire body and it took most of her willpower to refrain from doing so.

"No, I am aware that there is no excuse for me doing that, other than the fact that I **did** have other goals in mind at the time. You both knew that fact as well. And yet, there you were, always trying to hold me back. That, and to return me to Konoha... I couldn't allow that, and I did what I had to in order to keep you two away from me."

Sakura let out a loud groan in frustration. Was he truly that emotionally dense? Ugh, he just didn't get it! To him, attempted murder seems like nothing, when to her and Naruto, as well as any other sane human being on the planet, it was and still is, a huge deal!

"Look, the fact of the matter is... I don't **know** you anymore, and quite frankly, that **is** asking a lot more from me than you'd think." She paused, carefully collecting her words as he gave her a slightly confused look.

"I'm one of Konoha's best medical shinobi." Sakura stood up from where she had been sitting on the couch and began pacing back and forth in front of it. Sasuke stared at her expressionlessly, still listening as she continued speaking, her fingers running through her hair.

"Having children—getting pregnant almost constantly—that would require me to give up the one thing that I have worked so hard to accomplish! I'm not ready for that... And besides, there is absolutely no romantic attraction between you and I! You can't just ask someone you've lived with for only a month—whom **you** have shown nothing but outward signs of hatred towards—'will you bare my children', and expect them to say something along the lines of 'Oh sure! Let's get on that right away!'. Seriously, Sasuke, I—"

"Gomen, Sakura... You're probably right—that was asking a bit much. I think... I think that I'm just tired... It's been a rough couple of hours." Sakura gave him a small, sad smile in return.

"Good, at least you've come to your senses." She started with a nervous laugh. Sasuke merely looked at her, his face still holding little-to-no expression, except perhaps mild amusement.

"Hm? Who said that I did that, Sakura? I still fully intend to revive my clan, with a fully capable kunoichi. Of course you were the first choice for that, considering our history... and your new found reputation." He started. Sakura's gut gave her a feeling of where this conversation was heading.

"Oh... right, of course..."

"However, since you seem to be **so** uninterested, I could perhaps pursue that Yamanaka girl." His voice hid a small tinge of teasing to it and Sakura tensed all over, stopping dead in her tracks.

"Impossible. Ino has a boyfriend." Sakura said, laughing nervously while also feeling slightly better, knowing that what she had said was the truth.

Ino and Shikamaru had begun dating about a month earlier after Shikamaru had boldly told Ino that he had been in love with her since they were young children. Ironically enough, Ino had felt the same way, and the two began immediately dating afterwords. Really, in Sakura's opinion, they were the ideal, perfect couple.

"Hn. Too bad. What about that Tenten girl?"

"She's dating Neji."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the revelation that the cold Hyuuga was in a relationship with anyone romantically, considering what he remembered about the older shinobi.

"Hinata? I highly doubt that she is involved with anyone. And surely, Hiashi would be thrilled at the idea to broaden his family's bloodline by breeding the byakugan and the sharingan to create the ultimate dojutsu."

Sakura scoffed in mild amusement at his words.

"Hah! She's in love with Naruto. There's no way in hell you'd ever win her affections over that." Sakura replied monotonously. This game was getting very old quick. She knew exactly what he was doing and wasn't going to play into his mind torment that easily.

"Hm, I guess that just leaves you out of the eligible Konohagakure kunoichi, now, doesn't it? At least, the ones in our age group. But you clearly aren't interested, so what should I do now, Sa-kur-a?" Sakura merely scoffed, crossed her arms defiantly, and turned away.

"Do whatever the hell you want, Uchiha. It's not going to change anything." Sasuke smirked at her in response.

"Oh really? Do whatever I want?" He spoke softly, staring intently at her.

"Sure. Why would I care about whatever you decide do about this situation?"

Opening an eye to peek at him, Sakura was shocked to find Sasuke staring at her intensely face-to-face. Both of her eyes immediately shot open and she got into a defensive pose, with her arms in front of her, creating a distance between the two of them. Slowly and catlike, Sasuke began walking towards her.

For every step that he took towards her, Sakura took another step backwards to escape him. Much to her displeasure, however, her back was soon met with an icy cold wall and he had her pinned. For a moment he just stared intently at her, his face still painted with a smirk that was urging her to smack him all the more.

"S-Sasuke? What are you doing? I—"

Before Sakura could further respond, Sasuke had pressed his lips roughly to her own. For a moment she didn't respond to the kiss. She just stood there in shock. His lips, she noticed were incredibly soft and warm. It was amazing how just about everything about him was soft and warm, and yet his personality contrasted that so greatly.

Slowly and hesitantly, Sakura began moving her lips against his own, too lost in the moment to do otherwise for the time being. The kiss was slow and gentle, yet at the same time, it was also rough and forceful. It lasted what seemed to Sakura like an eternity before Sasuke finally pulled away for air, leaving Sakura panting heavily.

When her senses finally returned to her, even slightly, she glared long and hard at him. Her eyes were furious, because of the feelings that welled up inside of her heart at the kiss. So many emotions were painted in her eyes, it was truly a sad thing to behold, and if the other person involved in the kiss was anyone other than Sasuke, they would have pitied her. Sadness. Fear. Hurt. Love. Loss. Confusion. Anger. Pain.

So many things at one time, that is what Sakura experienced. One would imagine that kissing the person you love the most would have a positive effect on you, but the situation the two young shinobi were in was too complicated to ever be so simple.

Finally, Sakura came to her senses, and all of her other feelings, save for her anger and confusion, were quickly erased as she finally snapped at him.

"What the hell are you doing, Sasuke?!" She shouted at him as she began placing her hands on his chest to push him away from her.

Sasuke looked at her indifferently before shrugging his shoulders. "You said that I could do _whatever_ I wanted. **This** is what I want. I want _**you, **_right now."

Immediately, he pressed his lips roughly against her own once more, cutting her off from anything further she wanted to say to him past this point. This time, he forced his tongue into her mouth. Sakura felt defiant, however, and immediately turned her head roughly forcing him to break the kiss once more.

"I didn't mean it like **THAT**! Oh Kami-sama, please help me! This man is so damn dense, I swear—" Sakura began praying before being cut off by Sasuke, whom was looking irritated now due to her sudden insult directed towards him.

"Hey, I can still hear you, ya know."

Sakura's eye twitched comically. Of _course_ she knew that. He was, after all, still standing merely inches away from her, his body pinning her to one of her living room walls.

"Sasuke," Sakura began.

"Hm?" Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow.

"Get the **hell** off of me! **Now**!" Using some of her chakra-enhanced strength, Sakura pushed him off of her and began walking towards her bedroom, before slamming the door shut, emphasizing the fact that she was both pissed, and did not want to see him again that night.

Sasuke ran his fingers through his hair as he turned around and leaned against the wall, his back sliding along it as he sunk to the floor. He let out a long sigh in defeat, realizing it was going to take a lot more than just kissing her to convince Sakura of anything at this point in time.

* * *

The following day, Sasuke was awoken by the sounds of footsteps coming from the living room area. Stealthily, he cracked his door open about an inch or so and peered out, watching as Sakura paced around the living room fully dressed in her medic's uniform. He wondered idly to himself if she had to work again today.

He was disrupted from his thoughts, however, when he heard a knock coming from the front door. Taking this as his cue to make an appearance, he emerged from his bedroom and headed towards the door, curious as to who would be showing up so early in the morning.

Sakura had already beaten him to answering the door, and he gazed in mild curiosity at who the visitor was. Sakura was shocked to be met face-to-face with a smiling Naruto, whom was by now scratching the back of his head laughing nervously.

"Hey there, Sakura-chan. Mind if I come in?" He asked, his face plastered with his usual cheeky smile. Sakura blinked a few times before stepping aside, ushering him inside of her apartment.

"Naruto. Where have you been? I've been looking all over town for you! Kakashi-sensei wouldn't tell me where you were though. Is everything okay?" Suddenly, Naruto's cheerful mood faltered as he remembered exactly what he had been avoiding that whole time, though he did his best to conceal how he was feeling.

"Oh that? I just needed some time to myself. To think some things over. No need to worry though, Sakura-chan!" Naruto's beaming smile returned and Sakura let out a small sigh of relief, trusting his words and leading him towards her kitchen.

"Would you like something to drink, or to eat?" Naruto simply shook his head 'no'. Closing the fridge and pouring herself some juice, Sakura began to make her way towards the table where Naruto was sitting. Sasuke was leaning in the doorway of the kitchen when he finally caught Sakura's attention via clearing his throat.

"Oh! Sasuke-kun! I didn't see you there! Would you like something?" Sakura tried her best to pretend last night didn't happen, and that was blatantly obvious to Sasuke. Deciding to just go along with whatever she was intending, Sasuke shook his head 'no' in response and began walking towards the couch inside of the living room area. Watching Sasuke sit down on the couch, Sakura averted her attention immediately back to Naruto who was staring up at her from his place at the kitchen table.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, is everything okay? You seem to be spacing off a lot today?" Naruto asked, causing Sasuke to smirk from his place on the sofa and Sakura visibly stiffened before allowing her entire body to go slack.

"Sorry Naruto, I just had a **bad **night." She gritted out the word 'bad' particularly bitterly, making sure to accentuate the word enough for Sasuke's displeasure.

Because the truth of the matter was, that she had been thinking about the previous night. A lot. And that had caused her to dream last night. Of him. And she hated to dream of him. Because the dreams always ended badly, for her. For her heart.

Words couldn't describe how difficult it truly was on her last night to turn away from Sasuke's advances. But she just had a feeling in her gut that they were initiated on pure lust, and she wouldn't involve herself with lust. It would only hurt her already aching heart worse later on.

* * *

_**::Flashback::**_

"_Do whatever the hell you want, Uchiha. It's not going to change anything." Sasuke smirked at her in response._

"_Oh really? Do whatever I want?" He spoke softly, staring intently at her._

"_Sure. Why would I care about whatever you decide do about this situation?" _

_Opening an eye to peek at him, Sakura was shocked to find Sasuke staring at her intensely face-to-face. Both of her eyes immediately shot open and she got into a defensive pose, with her arms in front of her, creating a distance between the two of them. Slowly and catlike, Sasuke began walking towards her. _

_For every step that he took towards her, Sakura took another step backwards to escape him. Much to her displeasure, however, her back was soon met with an icy cold wall and he had her pinned. For a moment he just stared intently at her, his face still painted with a smirk that was urging her to smack him all the more._

"_S-Sasuke? What are you doing? I—"_

_Before Sakura could further respond, Sasuke had pressed his lips roughly to her own. For a moment she didn't respond to the kiss. She just stood there in shock. His lips, she noticed were incredibly soft and warm. It was amazing how just about everything about him was soft and warm, and yet his personality contrasted that so greatly. _

_Slowly and hesitantly, Sakura began moving her lips against his own, too lost in the moment to do otherwise for the time being. The kiss was slow and gentle, yet at the same time, it was also rough and forceful. It lasted what seemed to Sakura like an eternity before Sasuke finally pulled away for air, leaving Sakura panting heavily._

* * *

Sakura couldn't stop thinking about that kiss. In fact, that's all she dreamed of the night before, after she went to her room and finally fell asleep. It irritated her to no end, how easily he could gain the upper hand whenever it came to her. He made her weak and defenseless, and she felt so damn sick and vulnerable whenever he did it.

It was just a kiss, right?! Why did things have to be so damn complicated about it now? Though, technically, it was two kisses, but still. It was, regardless, complicated. There was absolutely nothing that was going to change that fact.

"...So Naruto," Sakura began, causing the blonde shinobi's head to immediately face her. "Are you feeling okay? Your injury, I mean."

Naruto blinked at her before flashing a toothy grin at her, sliding his jacket off of his shoulders, revealing a perfectly healed wound.

"Mhm! I'm as good as new, Sakura-chan!" He replied.

_'Ah yes, the power of the Kyuubi strikes again,'_ she mused to herself. Smiling at him, she nodded and he pulled his jacket back up, covering his shoulders.

There was a pregnant pause between the two shinobi before Sakura finally mustered up enough boldness, still cautious considering the recent gap that had been set between the two for reasons unknown to her. She didn't want Naruto to up and disappear again over something she might do or say.

Naruto's recent, albeit brief, social withdrawal, had been a serious rift in their friendship, mainly because it had never happened before. Naruto's usual cheerful demeanor always allowed him to force a smile, even when he was at his saddest point. But whatever had happened to make him disappear, was serious. She didn't want to risk that happening again considering how worried she had grown about him.

"So Naruto," Sakura began cautiously, causing the blonde shinobi's head to immediately face her. "What brings you here today?"

Naruto glanced up at Sakura, his expression suddenly donning over with a sudden realization, as if remembering something very important, which, surprisingly, it was.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot! We have a D-Rank mission today! I begged baa-chan to give us something more important to do, but then again, I can't really complain considering," Naruto paused long enough to allow a large grin to grace his lips before continuing. "This is Team Seven's first official mission together again."

Sakura gazed at him, in shock at his words. Team Seven? Together again? That meant that Sasuke would be involved in this mission as well then, correct? After all, she was in charge of guarding him at all times for who-knows how long. And the mission was the lowest possible ranking, meaning little-to-no effort would be needed to complete it.

"But what about Sasuke's chakra levels? They're too low to travel at a shinobi's pace, let alone perform any jutsu." Sakura asked, her curiosity growing more and more by the minute.

"Baa-chan said to tell you not to worry about that. The mission is supposed to be a simple escort mission. Some big shot merchant or something. Apparently, he's only hired some shinobi at a chuunin level to be extra cautious. It's completely unnecessary, but he insisted. And also, the pay is supposed to be nice." He finished with an even larger grin, if that were even possible.

"Wow, that's surprising. I figured it'd be months before she'd let him do any missions, let alone leave the village. Well, then again, I guess this would be okay considering he has just barely enough chakra to avoid passing out, and that we'll be there to make sure he doesn't try to escape."

Naruto nodded his head before speaking again.

"Ano, Sakura-chan, I have to head home to prepare for the mission. You and the Teme should do the same thing. We leave at noon. I'll see you guys at the gate, okay? Oh, and by the way, Sai and Yamato-sensei wont be coming with us today. Apparently, the merchant only paid enough ryo for four shinobi escorts. That means you, me, Sasuke, and Kakashi-sensei. See you later, Sakura-chan!" Naruto said with a cheeky smile and a wave as he began sprinting off towards the direction of his home.

Once Naruto was gone, Sakura hesitantly glanced towards the couch to be met eye-to-eye with Sasuke, whom was staring at her with an unreadable expression written all over his face.

"What?" She simply asked.

"Nothing. Oh, but one thing—don't mention what happened last night to anyone."

Sakura looked at him, not really all that surprised by his statement. Then again, truth be told, she wanted nothing more than to just forget everything that had happened the night before. It was a very miserable experience for her, and it wasn't exactly something she would be pleased with remembering. No, she just wanted to put it behind her and go on with her life.

"Don't worry about that," she stated coldly before turning towards the direction of her bedroom. Once she entered the bedroom, she grabbed an empty backpack beside her bed and began filling it up with the essential items for the mission.

The first thing she put inside of the backpack was a standard first aid kit, in case anyone happened to get injured during the mission. The next thing she loaded was various weapons, including some shuriken, kunai knives, senbon needles, and other various lethal objects. Once her pack was securely shut, she loaded it onto her back and strapped a kunai holster to her upper thigh, and began pulling her black leather gloves onto her hands.

Glancing up quickly at the mirror to give herself a final once over before she and Sasuke departed for the destination point of the mission—the village gates—she checked to make sure she looked at least presentable for their client.

Once she was satisfied with her appearance, she headed towards a small drawer in her bedroom. She pulled out an extra kunai holster, as well as several shuriken before heading towards the living room area. Walking towards Sasuke, she glanced in his direction before shoving the contents in her hand towards his own.

"Here, these are just to make sure you aren't rendered completely useless in case something were to happen. Try anything otherwise, and you KNOW what I mean by that, and you will deeply regret it."

Sasuke merely scoffed at her statement, having no such intentions and finally glad to be permitted to leave their stuffy apartment, and for a mission, no less.

Pulling on their shinobi sandals, Sakura and Sasuke prepared to make their way towards the meeting point. Once they arrived to the village gates, they were surprised to be met with Naruto, whom had arrived early as usual. He always was the first to make it to their meeting points.

As usual, Kakashi was nowhere in sight, and from experience, all three teammates knew that he would be late for this mission, just like every other mission he takes place in.

Kakashi eventually showed up—thirty minutes late—reading one of his Icha Icha novels, just as always.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Both Naruto and Sakura shouted at him in unison, and he merely responded with a crinkle of his eye, indicating his cheeky smile hidden beneath his mask.

"Yeah, sorry. I was busy helping a group of academy students whom were lost on their way and—" Before he could finish coming up with some excuse, Naruto and Sakura cut him off.

"Liar!" They both shouted at the same time towards their teacher.

Laughing nervously, Kakashi brushed the two younger shinobi off as the four began their civilian-paced journey towards their destination—The Hidden Waterfall Village, Takigakure. Their client was traveling from Taki to Kusagakure, The Hidden Grass Village. The mission would take an entire day, at most, and they were lucky they got an early start for their travels considering the pace they would have to be traveling at.

Team Seven made it their top priority from the get-go to not let on to the client that Sasuke's chakra was being restrained, considering what the man was paying for the team to escort him. Surely, if he were to find out about Sasuke's limited abilities, the mission would be failed as the client would more than likely immediately refuse their services. And that just wouldn't do for Team Seven's first mission together again.

They traveled at civilian speed, or in other words, slow. _Agonizingly_ _slow, _at that, but eventually, they reached their destination with no detours or problems thus far. Their trip so far had been quiet overall, aside from Naruto's outward happiness to be doing a mission with Team Seven again, a goal he had been keeping for years now.

By now, Naruto was a more-than capable chuunin, just like Sakura, while Sasuke was still technically ranked a Genin, despite the advancement of his powers, which could easily rank him as a chuunin as well, if not at an ANBU level. But due to his probation, he wouldn't be allowed to change shinobi ranks for a good while. He knew however, that despite this, his abilities would easily enable him a definite promotion in rank whenever the time should come for it.

Finally, after a roughly forty-five minute trip on foot, the four shinobi reached their destination: Takigakure. The client was waiting for them at the gate. The client was an older gentleman around the age of the village elder's. He wasn't on his death bed, but also was not in the prime of his youth. From the looks of him, the members of Team Seven could immediately tell that the man was no more than a simple civilian. He was rather large in stature and not physically in shape—a dead giveaway that the man was definitely not a shinobi.

"Hello there," the man beamed with a friendly smile. "My name is Takaharu Yoshiko. I'm a merchant in the trade of a rare type of lumber, worth almost a fortune in my village." Sakura smiled brightly at the man.

"Hello there, my name is Haruno Sakura, and these are my teammates Uzumaki Naruto," she paused as she gestured towards Naruto, who responded with an equally bright smile and a small wave.

"Hatake Kakashi," she averted her direction towards the oldest member of Team Seven, whose response was a simple "yo" and a wave.

"And Uchiha Sasuke," she finished with her hand directed towards Sasuke, who merely nodded his head in a silent, yet polite "hello".

"As I'm sure you are already aware, we are shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village and we're here to ensure that you remain safe during your trip to Kusagakure." Sakura added, maintaining a strict professionalism as she spoke.

"Well then, it's nice to meet you all. I would like to thank you ahead of time for escorting me. Call it paranoia, but I just don't quite feel safe traveling to Kusa on my own. Especially not at my age with my current state of health."

The members of Team Seven merely nodded their heads in understanding. Sakura was surprised that the man was as polite as he was. She had expected some big-shot merchant who wanted his own personal bodyguards just for appearances, but from speaking with their client just now, that was clearly not the case at all. That factor alone made Sakura feel a bit more satisfied with being able to perform the current mission at hand.

* * *

Team Seven began to make their way back to the Hidden Leaf Village. Their mission had been a complete success—a major feat considering the fact that they were short a member in terms of power. In fact, the only reason the mission was a success was because absolutely nothing had gone wrong during the transport of the client. There were no sudden, unexpected attacks and everything had worked out overall fine up until the very end.

Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi were relatively quiet on the journey home, while Naruto was rambling on something about heading to Ichiraku's to get some ramen, just as he always did after any mission. Sakura rolled her eyes at that statement. Typical Naruto, she thought.

Kakashi and Naruto parted with both Sakura and Kakashi at the village gates, Kakashi taking the liberty as the leader of the team to make the final report to Tsunade, and Naruto heading towards the ramen stand for his dinner. Sakura and Sasuke were the only two that remained and they were left in an uncomfortable silence.

The silence lasted about ten whole minutes, and involved a lot of Sakura doing vast signs of discomfort—playing with loose strands of her hair, fiddling her hands, shifting her weight to different legs every so often—and Sasuke noticed all of it. Finally, unable to stand any more silence as the two walked around aimlessly, not yet tired from their very dull and excitement-deprived mission, Sakura decided to speak.

"So… That wasn't too bad for our first mission as a team again, ne Sasuke?"

The question seemed stupid after she asked it, though it wasn't much of a question rather than a statement. Silently, she berated herself for saying anything about the stupid mission at all, but the silence shared between the two of them was driving her mad.

By now, they were in some sort of small forest-like area that reminded her vaguely of a small training grounds, only without the fighting posts and special markings indicating the difference between training grounds. Also, the size of the small clearing was far too small to be a training ground of any kind.

"Tch, I guess so. I'd have preferred something less… academy worthy, however, considering my 'background' and skill level." Sasuke sneered.

He was clearly unhappy with having to perform such a low-leveled mission, and considering all of the training he had gone through before returning to the village, Sakura was certain that something so lowly would be nothing more than a huge slap in the face to him. Perhaps that was the Hokage's goal all along, however. Her shishou always DID have a sick sense of humor.

Small tidbits from the night before were replaying through Sakura's head throughout the entirety of the mission, however. It wasn't enough to disrupt her professionalism as a shinobi, but it DID have her more than just a bit distracted. It was small things—things he said before he kissed her; things that made her ponder just what he had planned to do next.

She wondered if he could ever truly be happy in Konoha, and hoped for everyone's sake that someday, he could. She knew right now he was miserable with his current fate, and the fact that he was at the mercy of the village elder's, the same people who ordered to have his entire family murdered, she knew that he was in agony mentally.

At this point in time, Sasuke's options were short, simple, and limited. Stay in the village and attempt to regain his full shinobi status and rank, or, die as a punishment for all of his crimes against the village. The logical choice was rather quite obvious. And so, he would live here, happy or not, and complete his final life's goal—the revival of the Uchiha clan.

Idly, her mind drifted back towards the interrogation.

* * *

_**::Flashback::**_

"_Who is the masked Akatsuki member?"_

_'"Uchiha Madara."_

* * *

Uchiha Madara. _Tobi._ Was he still out there somewhere? Plotting something against the village? And what about the things Sasuke had said during the interrogation involving the Uchiha clan? How was he handling all of that? It was a heavy cross for him to bare.

* * *

_**::Flashback::**_

"_...My clan was wiped out in order to protect the lives of innocents that they would have slaughtered during their rebellion. So there! That's everything I know!"_

_Sasuke's voice was pleading and Sakura felt guilt wrench in her stomach. Things were going to change the minute this was over. He'd probably either hate her, or block her out of his life even more than before. Nothing good could come from this. But, the interrogation wasn't over. And now, it was time for the question that would determine whether or not Sasuke would be executed or not._

* * *

Things did immediately change after that day, literally. Sasuke kissed her the very night of the interrogation, TWICE. After that, she wasn't sure what he was capable of trying to pull, but she wanted to make it very clear to him that she was NOT the least bit interested, despite the fact that in actuality, she was.

Truth be told, she still had feelings towards Sasuke, but refused to grant him the satisfaction of knowing that fact. The smug bastard would just think her to be weak again if she did, and that was NOT acceptable. Another thing holding her back was fear. She was so afraid of him hurting her again, that she wasn't willing to risk anything with him. The things he said the night before, she knew they were lies.

* * *

_**::Flashback::**_

"_I love you."_

* * *

Then again, any sign of affection coming from the infamous cold-hearted Uchiha would be nothing more than a hopeless lie. He was incapable of feeling anything but hatred, and vengeance, as well as pain and sadness, to a degree that in engulfed him fully, and had been doing so for years. In fact, it would probably do so for the rest of his life.

Sakura looked over at Sasuke who was walking silently alongside her. Her eyes drifted to his neck where some very visible cuts were located. Sakura mentally slapped herself for not noticing them sooner. The night before, she had forgotten to heal his injuries completely and then had gotten too angry to do so after he kissed her.

"Sasuke, come here." She said sternly. Stopping in his tracks and turning to face her, he glanced at her with mild curiosity but otherwise said nothing as he slowly walked towards her.

Summoning her healing chakra to her fingertips, she slowly brushed her hands across his neck, healing the tiny various little wounds that covered it. Sasuke wondered to himself why she was healing him at all. He had figured she would still be upset about the night before, and he was willing to allow the tiny, stinging cuts to heal themselves naturally.

After all, they didn't hurt as much the day after they had been inflicted, and they surely weren't deep enough to leave scars. But still, there she was, healing him as if nothing had happened between the two of them the night before. It was then that it occurred to him exactly what she was doing. She was trying to simply forget the night before. Sasuke smirked immediately at this thought, and decided to defy her silent wishes by leaning towards her neck.

Immediately, the flow of Sakura's chakra stopped and she simply froze in place. What the hell was he doing? Suddenly, Sakura felt the collar of her shirt being tugged down a bit to reveal her collar bone. Then, afterwords, she felt Sasuke's warm mouth latch on to the visible bone, sucking and biting rather roughly. Sakura gasped aloud and immediately went into a defensive stance, trying to push Sasuke away from her, with no luck at all.

Finally, he noticed a small, purple mark appearing in the wake of where his lips were, and satisfied, he pulled away.

"W-What the hell, Sasuke?!" Sakura shouted as she adjusted the collar of her shirt. Sasuke merely smirked at her in response.

"Hn. You can try to forget about last night all you want, Sakura, but I don't think you'll be able to forget this," he paused pointing towards the small purple mark on her collarbone, "as easily.

Sakura gaped at him in shock. Forget last night...was that what he thought she was trying to do?! She immediately became angrier than she already was and was prepared to give him an earful, but before she could say anything, he had already managed to shove his hands in his pockets and began walking off in the direction of their apartment.

Sakura growled in heavy frustration and began trudging towards him, muttering curses and insults directed at him that were along the lines of "smug, Uchiha bastard", "insensitive prick", and "ungrateful asshole".

She even went as far as to take a page from the book of Sai and directly insult the Uchiha's manhood, stating rather loudly that she doubted he even had a penis, and that Sai was more than likely correct in all of his assumptions regarding the Uchiha's manhood.

This was something that had truly struck a nerve, just as it always seemed to do. Sasuke was a very dominate, egotistical male, and any direct blows towards his pride, or his manhood, would not be taken lightly by him. Now was no exception.

Before Sakura could spurt out any further insults, Sasuke had her pinned against a nearby tree with her hands held in place directly above her head by one of his own larger hands. She shifted uncomfortably beneath his heavy, angry gaze but refused to submit to him in any way, shape, or form.

"What the hell are you doing, Sasuke?!" She shouted at him as she attempted to use her normal strength with no avail. Sasuke said nothing to her in response at first, but instead, merely stared down at her. It took him a moment before he gathered what he wanted to say, and he finally spoke to her, his tone laced with anger and something else that Sakura couldn't quite place.

"You know, I could always just SHOW you just how wrong you are about my..." without saying the actual word, his eyes averted down and Sakura's own followed before widening in horror.

"Or, I could do more than just show you." He said idly while trailing his free hand down her cheek, neck, and collarbone, stopping just barely above her breasts.

"Okay! Okay! I get it! Now get the hell off of me, Uchiha!" She shouted in anger and frustration. Obliging her wishes finally, he released her hands and resumed walking in the direction of their apartment, Sakura following completely silent in tow.

There was a reason Sakura was silent during the walk to their home, however. She mentally was berating herself for the physical reaction she had towards what Sasuke had done to her, because she wanted nothing more than to just put him out of her life for good once this entire living situation/babysitting gig was over with.

She wanted to hate Sasuke, and if she couldn't do that, she would just settle for keeping as much distance from him as she could. Even if that meant retiring from active shinobi duty and becoming a full-time medic, she would do that just for that purpose. Yes, she would give up everything she loved if it meant never having to speak to him again after her time of having no other choice but to do so was up.

And the worst part of it all, was knowing that once she could get the chance to be fully rid of him, it would hurt her more than him leaving the village had. Because she still loved him that much. And he had finally come back, too. That would be a major blow, considering how hard both she and Naruto had tried in order to bring him back home.

The sun was just about set by the time they arrived at their apartment building, and Sakura wanted to just go to sleep and put everything that had happened today far away in the back of her mind. In a way, she was grateful that Sasuke hadn't left that hickey anywhere that someone could see, but the mere fact that he had given her one at all—and against her will, too—angered her and frustrated her to no end. She was mentally exhausted for the entire day, and a majority of that was thanks to him. Hopefully, she could sleep well tonight, though she didn't count on being so fortunate.

* * *

**A/N: **Wow, that was the second longest chapter I've written for this story (just barely 12 pages long). But it was necessary. This story is getting a little difficult for me to write though. Shits had me down lately. I keep thinking about the guy who inspired this story whenever I'm not writing it and it makes me sick remembering what he did to me. Remembering what I *let* him do to me. And the fact that here I am, alone and left with only painful memories of it all; yeah, I'm a mess. I've also been having a lot of asthmatic problems, particularly at night. Anyways, R&R people. Feedback would be nice. :)


	7. Complicated

**A/N: **I would like to thank all of my readers who have shown me support towards my situation in real life. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. There has been a recent update on that asshole, too. My friend told me the name of this chick that he left me for and I looked her up in an old yearbook and, well, I laughed... hard... in fact, harder than I ever laughed I think in a long while. And why? Because not only is this girl ugly as hell, but I swear that she could pass as a relative of his! Their child is going to be retarded, I swear...

But... even knowing all of that, sometimes at night, when I'm all alone, I'm still hurting so much. It's a gut-wrenching pain that I just can't shake off and it makes me want to just curl up and die sometimes. Sometimes, I do just curl up and get sick to my stomach because it consumes my thoughts. =[ Thankfully, I have this story to vent with, so that's what I'm going to do. :) Enjoy the chapter.

**Updated A/N: **Sorry this has taken so long, I really have been meaning to get it posted soon, I've just been busy. I had gotten a new boyfriend, but we broke up because I wasn't ready to be in a relationship yet. We're still friends on the upside. :) Anyways..

The latest Manga is just... wtf. Lol that's all I have to say. Wtf?! XD

* * *

The following day was filled with a rain that seemed absolutely endless to the entire Fire Country. Rain wasn't too common of an occurrence in the Land of Fire, but it also wasn't all that rare either. But either way, rain like this was nothing but just plain relentless and heavy. It seemed as if it would never end, and it kept both Sakura and Sasuke, as well as most of the other villagers and shinobi alike, pent up inside of their home.

After the previous day's incident, Sakura had barely said more than two words to Sasuke, and the same went likewise. Sasuke, never being one for much conversation as it was, really wasn't doing all that much out of the norm for him, but as far as Sakura was concerned, the silence was definitely a big change on her behalf.

Usually, she despised the kind of long, awkward silences such as the one that had been being held throughout the day, but today, she seemed almost content with the silence, embracing it and avoiding nearly all contact with her roommate. Idly, Sasuke wondered why she wasn't speaking much, but he had a feeling it had a lot to do with what had happened the day before after their mission.

To be honest, what Sasuke had done the day before was completely out of character for himself, and he usually had a lot more self-control and restraint than that. However, he also always had been a very competitive person, and Sakura's little jab about his manhood just about pushed the last of his buttons straight in. Of course he retaliated towards her. Albeit, it wasn't in the most productive of ways, but it was a retaliation no less.

Sakura, on the other hand, should have been feeling absolute triumph towards the reaction she had stirred from Sasuke, because it was proof that she was capable of working her way under his skin, just as he had always seemed to be capable of doing to her. That in itself should have been victorious enough for her. Albeit, it was in a completely and entirely different kind of victory, but still. However, as she sat in front of one of her large living room windows staring out into the storm on the opposite side, she couldn't help but feel shaken.

Yesterday, Sasuke's resolve had snapped completely, and the look in his eyes was purely animalistic, not to mention tense. There was so much lust and anger fueling his intentions at the moment that he had pinned her to that tree, she honestly felt a bit afraid; afraid that he would do something rash like rape her or something. Of course, those thoughts were a bit way over the top and pretty absurd, but she still thought them, no less.

The two shinobi hadn't spoken to one another since that moment yesterday. The walk home was silent, as well as parting ways to head to their respective bedrooms. This morning was also silent, and now, the two both sat on opposite end of the living room in pure silence still, neither budging to do as much as glance at one another.

They had been at this for the last two hours now, and it was rather amazing how well they were both holding up with it. No glances, no words, just silence and thoughts amongst themselves. Inevitably, their thoughts happened to be in the same place – yesterday – though it just so happened to be in two completely different ways.

Sakura was silently trying to make sense of everything. About the kisses, the threats, the tension, the lust. Where was all of that coming from? Uchiha Sasuke, a man known to be colder than a fish, showed her—the girl he once claimed to hate; whom annoyed him to no end—attention, even if it was merely lust enacted upon an impulse that she had thus provoked with her teasing comments towards his manhood. But was that honestly all that it would take for him to snap? If he even had boundaries, what were them? How far could she push his buttons before he snapped again? And finally, did she even want to figure it out?

_'Hell no! I don't want anything more to do with him beyond what I have to. At this point in time, I don't even want to be friends with him anymore. I just want him out of my life! He frustrates me to no end and yet... every time I look at him, I fall for him again. And nothing good is going to come from that. In the end, I'm only going to get hurt, so... I'm looking forward to him leaving... it will be for the best for everyone...'_

"Don't lie to me anymore, Sasuke." Sakura said absently, only to realize her words afterwords. Even though they embarrassed her, she still felt strongly about following through with what she had to say. Finally, Sasuke acknowledged her and looked at her, giving her a glance that was curious and ushered her to go on with whatever else she clearly wanted to say to him.

"Don't say things like you love me, because I know that you don't... And just... things like that, please don't say them, okay?"

"Hn."

Sakura took that as a silent yes, though she couldn't be too sure whenever it came to Sasuke anymore. Inwardly, she wished that Ino were there or something to help ease her boredom and to also help release some of the tension coming from her end. Sasuke wasn't very good company, especially after the little stunt he pulled yesterday. In fact, things would probably remain awkward between them for now on, or at least, that's what Sakura figured.

She couldn't help but wonder what was going through his mind, however, and for a brief moment, she almost considered pushing his buttons again to be a decent idea. Then she remembered what had happened yesterday and second-thought it. What if he tried pulling something like that again? Perhaps she could delve for some information, push his buttons halfway in, and still come out home free?

_'Of course that would never happen.'_

But still, pushing his buttons a little bit in couldn't hurt too badly—she hoped. All of these thoughts were immediately pushed into the back of her mind when she noticed Sasuke standing up and heading towards his bedroom. Once she heard the soft click of the door, she let out a long sigh in relief. Finally, some of that tension was gone. However, now she was left alone in the living room. What would she do now? There wasn't much she COULD do considering the storm taking place outside.

It's days like these that shinobi truly grow to hate. Because training or even standing outside in the rain almost always leads to some sort of cold, and colds mean no missions when the weather does finally clear up.

Shinobi didn't have time for leisure or common luxuries. They were born and trained to do missions, kill, and eventually breed more shinobi for the future generations to come. When you look at it from the rough point of view, being a shinobi doesn't seem like such a wonderful thing.

Suddenly, an idea came to Sakura's mind and instantly she was standing in front of her bookshelf, her eyes darting from left to right as she quickly searched for a particular medical book, which she knew she would be needing to read much later on. Finally, her eyes stopped once she saw the red-spined book that she had been looking for entitled "A Medical Breakdown of the World's Most Powerful Dojutsu's".

Ah yes, there it was. Sakura knew that there was bound to be something in the book about the sharingan and it's slow deterioration that Sasuke was currently facing. She knew that being the second best medic in the village as well as Sasuke's personal medic, she would more than likely be assigned the duty of inspecting his eyes and eventually repairing any damage that they have already suffered.

Flipping the pages of the book, she searched the top of the pages for the particular title she was searching for. Finally, she found what she was looking for after a few quick page shuffles.

_'Page 143—The Mangekyo Sharingan'_

"To acquire the Mangekyo Sharingan, someone close to a Sharingan user must die." Sakura began to read aloud.

"The emotion of the loss is responsible for its unlocking. To expedite this occurrence, most Uchiha throughout history have killed their closest friends or family members in order to meet this criteria, though, there is still a possible alternate method for doing this which is as of yet unknown."

_'Alright, I already know all of this! What else is there about the Mangekyo Sharingan that I don't know?'_

"Over time, use of the Mangekyo Sharingan's techniques deteriorates the user's eyesight to the point of blindness."

_'Oh, here we go.'_

"Only by taking and transplanting the eyes of another who also wields the Mangekyo Sharingan can the vision be restored, a process that results in the creation of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. Not only does this process restore one's eyesight, but it also gives the person greater power."

Sakura quickly turned the page having reached the end of the one she was reading. She was alarmed to have been faced with a new dojutsu article, indicating that there was no more information medically about the Mangekyo's deterioration or even it's functions.

Immediately, she ran to the corner of her living room and grabbed an umbrella, followed by a raincoat and her shinobi sandals.

"Sasuke, I'm heading to the library. Do you mind coming with me?" Sakura shouted from across the room. Sasuke opened his door and glanced at her in acknowledgment before nodding his head, grabbing his own jacket and shinobi sandals.

* * *

The two made it to the library quickly and did their best to evade the rain by all means necessary. Once they were inside, they were met with a very empty room, much to Sakura's pleasure. To be honest, she didn't feel like running into anybody she knew right now, her head being set on finding out more information on the Mangekyo Sharingan's functions and a possible cure to Sasuke's rapid descent into blindness.

Rushing over towards the medical section of the library, Sakura left Sasuke sitting by himself at a lone wooden table in the middle of the large room. Sakura grabbed four books all having to do with different dojutsu's and their functions hoping to get a hit on the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Idly, she wondered to herself if there were any classified documents about the eye in existence that she should know about. Brushing that thought to the back of her mind, however, she began walking back towards the table. Sitting across from Sasuke who was now reading a book of his own, Sakura began flipping through the pages of the book on the top of her small pile.

The book was called "The Functions of the Dojutsu Eye". Sakura was hopeful about this book and silently prayed to whoever would listen to her that there was some sort of valuable information about the Sharingan in this particular book.

Her eyes quickly skimmed through the pages until she found something regarding the make up of the dojutsu eye. The page displayed a picture of the human eye. It showed how between the iris and the cornea, there was a thin layer which contained a person's dojutsu. The dojutsu part of the eye was connected to all other parts of the human eye by small nerves and had a small sac behind everything else which displayed the dojutsu's link with a person's chakra. Observing the picture for a few moments, Sakura concluded that this must explain whatever seemed to be going on in Sasuke's eyes.

The Mangekyo was probably somehow affecting his chakra stream through his nerves and that was causing his iris and cornea to become more and more damaged as time progressed due to chakra burns. If she could somehow replace the damage, or at least repair it, his eyesight should be safe.

_'Wow. That was easier than I thought it would be.' _ She thought to herself.

"Sasuke... are there any classified medical scrolls that you know of regarding the sharingan?" Sasuke looked up at Sakura curiously, wondering why she would ask him something like that. His eyes shifting down to her reading material gave him his answer and he responded to her honestly.

"If there are, they aren't in Konoha, and probably haven't been for years. Madara more than likely would have taken anything like that with him back during the massacre. Why are you so curious about the sharingan all of a sudden?"

Sakura bit her bottom lip and averted her eyes.

"Because, I know that eventually I'm going to have to operate on your eyes to prevent you from going blind. I need to be as informed about your dojutsu as possible. I figured I'd start now since I didn't have anything else to do today."

"I see. Well, I don't know how much help it would be, but I do know a bit about the sharingan,including information that even the village elders aren't aware of. As long as you can guarantee that you wont tell anybody about the more classified bits of information, I would be willing to tell you about it."

Sakura looked at Sasuke in pure shock. He would be willing to share such a huge secret with her? She was shocked, to say the very least. There had to be some sort of catch though, in order for him to be so willing to exert such classified knowledge with her. Sakura's eyes visibly narrowed as she peered at him from across the table.

"What's the catch?" She asked having a strong feeling that he would surely want _**something**_ in return. Sasuke merely smirked at her.

"You know exactly what I want, Sakura, so let's not play games with one another."

Sakura let out a groan in frustration, trying her best to keep her voice down due to them still being inside of a library. There was no way in hell she was going to practically kiss his ass just for a little bit of vital information.

"And there isn't anything else you want besides that?" She asked hopefully, knowing however that he had his mind set on _that_ and that alone.

"Hn, no. Take it or leave it, Sakura. It's your choice." Sasuke crossed his arms casually and leaned back against his chair as the kunoichi began a mental debate with herself, which only lasted a few seconds before she gave him a final response, accompanied by a sickeningly sweet smile.

"Not a snowball's chance in hell."

Sasuke merely shrugged his shoulders in response and the issue was from then on dropped. At least, for now it was. He wasn't bound to give up on his goal of convincing Sakura to help him revive his clan. She was the only female kunoichi in the village that he felt were capable of such a responsibility considering how powerful she had become over the years.

He supposed in some way, that her lack of interest in reviving his clan with him after all of these years was his cross to bear for all of the times he considered her to be weak and useless, particularly when they were younger. But back then, Sakura had absolutely no special skills, other than being so intelligent, as well as being a quick, steady learner.

Looking back on it, he supposed that Sakura could have been quite talented much earlier in her life had she been given the opportunity, but at the same time, she was far too infatuated with him back then for any true development to be able to take place. Now he was beginning to wonder just how positive of an effect his leaving the village had on her.

But what he would consider to be a positive thing, Sakura would consider to be one of the most painful experiences of her life. Over the years, she'd lost track of how many nights she had cried herself to sleep over him; of how much she truly did miss him and long for his return.

Now that he was back in the village, things weren't good enough, because of the fact being that she wasn't twelve years old anymore, and life wasn't some fairytale that involves her getting swept off of her feet by her prince charming—Sasuke—and get married, as well as become the mother of his children.

No, those dreams had died long ago, after years of force, and training, and inner growth. Sakura had to overcome too many trials during her coming of strength, and now, she wouldn't allow those false hopes and fantasies resurface, no matter how much she wished for them to.

She had to force herself to get through each and every day without breaking down, and that was a job far more difficult than anything else in the world, or so it seemed at this point. Hell, at this point in time, smiling almost felt like a chore she dreaded having to force herself to do. How can one genuinely smile when they aren't happy? The answer is simple—they cant.

_'I wonder sometimes if I'll ever smile like that again. Every smile I give now is filled with sadness, because I'm filled with sadness. I don't understand it completely myself. I try so hard every day to be happy; I have a million reasons why I **should** be happy! But it's still not enough to allow me to **be** happy. I wonder why?'_

Sometimes, stories end without a happy ending. The ending is either dramatic, traumatic, or problematic. Regardless, "happy endings" have become no more than an urban legend that rarely ever comes true, as if it ever had at all...

* * *

The following day, it was a lot more sunny. The rain from the day before had completely dried up due to the sun beating itself down upon the village and the streets were filled with groups of people, both shinobi and civilian alike. Everyone was going about their daily lives, including Sakura and Sasuke.

Currently, Sakura and Sasuke were at a lake near the local training grounds. Both had spent the day using all of their efforts to help Sasuke adapt to having such low chakra levels, and still being able to use minor jutsus. So far, he was only able to accomplish simple academy-level jutsu, such as a simple henge, creating a shadow clone, and currently, he was working on balancing his low chakra enough to be able to walk across water without immediately draining himself afterwords.

Thus far, he had no luck, and Sakura watched as Sasuke stood waist-deep in the lake. His clothing clung to his entire body due to him losing his chakra control several times and plummeting into the water, thus drenching himself.

"If you want, we can stop," she offered sympathetically. She knew that Sasuke's lack of chakra was driving him crazy at this point. She also knew that it depressed him to be unable to perform a simple jutsu that even a mere Genin could surpass him in, at the moment.

"No," he stated simply, and Sakura let out a long sigh. She was currently crouched down on the surface of the lake, her chakra focused in her feet as she balanced herself gracefully on the water's edge.

"Sasuke, you're going to end up passing out from chakra depletion at the rate your going in. Don't forget, you don't have that much chakra in your reserves as it is."

Sasuke merely huffed at her in annoyance. Of course he knew that he was overdoing it, and that he really needed to stop now while he was still standing upright, but he was far too stubborn to admit that he was in fact exhausted. His chakra levels were at a level of around 30% at the moment, and he had only been at this for less than an hour and a half. Every other small jutsu that he attempted took little-to-no chakra and allowed his reserves to replenish themselves a lot faster.

"I'll be fine." Sasuke responded with a small shiver. The water's temperature was freezing and although the day had been sunny, it wasn't quite warm enough to be enjoying a swim. Sasuke's lips were also turning a slight purple in tint and it was blatantly obvious that Sasuke was cold.

"Sasuke, you're freezing. Get out of the water, you don't have to prove anything to me!" Sakura yelled at him, her tone annoyed and concerned.

"I'm fine." He gritted out, trying his best not to allow his teeth to clatter. Sakura let out a long sigh in impatience towards his stubbornness. Why did that man always have to be so defiant towards her? And better yet, how the hell was she going to get him to get out of the water before he catches a cold?

Releasing her chakra control, Sakura's body plunged into the water and she immediately began shivering from the change of temperature. Walking behind Sasuke, Sakura placed both of her hands on his back and began forcefully pushing him towards the shore of the lake. Sasuke, of course, immediately objected and told her that he was fine, and wanted to continue trying to balance his small chakra reserves, but Sakura wasn't having any of it.

Eventually, as the two got closer to the water's shoreline, Sasuke surrendered, finally accepting the fact that he was indeed freezing and did NOT want to catch a cold. The two exited the water and stood beside each other, both hugging their arms tightly together in attempts to get warm, but to no avail.

"S-S-Sasuke," Sakura stuttered out as her teeth clattered quickly.

"Hn." He responded, to cold to actually form an entire word.

"L-L-Let's g-go h-h-home...!" She spat out finally, her entire body trembling. Sasuke simply nodded his head at her and the two began walking towards the direction of their apartment.

When they finally arrived, Sakura immediately went into a small closet at the end of the hallway and pulled out two towels and two blankets. Tossing a towel and a blanket towards Sasuke, Sakura then wrapped her own towel around her waist, followed by the soft blanket, her shivers slowly beginning to die down. Just for an extra measure, Sakura walked over towards her thermostat and turned the heat up, so that the two of them would have some heat.

"Do you wanna go take a hot shower?" She asked him and he simply nodded in a silent response before heading towards his bedroom to grab a dry pair of clothes. Once he had a dry set of clothing in hand, he began walking towards the bathroom.

Once Sasuke had finished taking a long, hot shower, he tossed his wet clothing into a clothing hamper, trading them for warmer sleepwear. As soon as he made his presence known in the living room, Sakura stood up without saying a word and began to make her way towards her bedroom to gather her dry change of clothes. As soon as Sakura finished her shower, she did the same small routine as Sasuke, putting her wet clothing in the hamper before making her way towards the living room.

Sasuke was sitting casually on the couch, focusing on nothing in particular on the floor. As soon as he sense Sakura's presence entering the room, he averted his eyes towards her, tossing her a lazy glance. She was wearing a white, long sleeved shirt and red pajama pants, while Sasuke was shirtless wearing only black pajama pants.

"This is much better." Sakura mused aloud, to nobody in particular as she tried her best to casually look around the room with false fascination. Sasuke didn't respond to her statement and the room grew silent. Sakura eventually made her way towards the opposite end of the couch, where she sat down pulling her knees towards her chest as she rested her chin on her folded arms.

Sakura glanced towards Sasuke direction out of the corner of her eye to see his chin rested in his own arms as he leaned against the arm of the couch, his eyes drooping sleepily as he stared ahead at the wall. The entire room was silent, and things felt a bit awkward between the two of them.

Finally deciding to break the silence, Sakura made a feeble attempt at making small talk by asking Sasuke how he was feeling. Sasuke simply responded that he was feeling fine and resumed his position staring at the wall in silence. This irritated Sakura lightly, her attempt at making small talk failing miserably at that point. However, she wasn't about to give up quite so easily, so she made another attempt.

"So," she started, purposefully creating a pause lasting long enough for him to glance over at her, indicating that she had his attention once more.

"Tsunade-sama should be about finished arranging for you to get your own place soon... I'm sure that will make you happier, huh?" Sakura gave a small, sad smile. And it was the strangest thing, considering that although a majority of the time, she absolutely hated living with Sasuke, she knew that she would feel a lot lonelier once he left. Sasuke remained silent but continued looking at Sakura intensely, his eyes never leaving her. His silence ushered Sakura to speak again.

"I mean, after all, it must be horrible living with me, considering everything that has happened before..." Her eyes averted towards the floor in self-loathing. She knew that she had more than likely annoyed the life out of Sasuke by this point and she hated that about herself.

"It's not that bad," Sasuke began. "Living with you could have been a lot worse than it has been. A lot of _**interesting**_ stuff has happened during this time, don't you agree?"

Sakura knew exactly what he was referring to when he said "interesting". Oh yes, she knew exactly what he meant, but she wasn't going to grant him the satisfaction by playing into it. So, she simply shrugged her shoulders in an uncertain response, which caused him to simply smirk at her in response. He was still as determined as ever to get her to agree to revive his clan with him.

"What, you don't agree that a lot of 'interesting' things have happened during the time we've lived together? We've seemed to... cover a lot of ground." Sasuke still had a smirk written all over his face, and Sakura simply rolled her eyes before responding.

"Maybe YOU think that it was interesting. I'd consider half of it harassment," she said with a small giggle, causing both of his eyebrows to dart up in surprise at her answer.

"Harassment? You mean that..." Sasuke paused as he leaned towards her end of the couch, causing Sakura to lean closer to the armchair in defense.

"You don't like..." He continued before pausing again to slide himself even closer towards her. Sakura dug her nails into the arm of the sofa after running out of room to slide away from him.

"Me kissing you?" Sasuke finished as he leaned in close, whispering in her ear. Involuntarily, Sasuke's breath on her neck made her shiver nervously and she immediately started shaking her head 'no'.

"No? Are you sure, Sa-kur-a? Perhaps we need more practice, so that you can make a better decision." Sakura whimpered in her mind, dreading what she knew he was bound to try to do next.

She knew Sasuke was going to kiss her—at this point in time, she couldn't have been more convinced of it. And that was something that scared her, a lot. Because her resolve was weakening more and more as the days passed by. Her love for him was overpowering her will to avoid getting hurt again by all means necessary. And that was certainly not a good thing.

Sakura was suddenly pulled out of her mental fretting when she felt Sasuke crush his lips down against hers. Immediately, her body wanted her to respond to the kiss; to give into temptation just this once time. And so, her body took control over her mind, and the next thing she knew, she had her fingers laced in his hair, pulling him closer towards her as she deepened the kiss. Her own lips were moving frantically against his own; her eyes, sealed shut.

Immediately, Sasuke sensed her lack of resistance towards the kiss, and took that as his cue to continue from where he was. He wanted to take things as far as he could, and he hoped that if he played his cards right now, he'd make it pretty far with her.

Before she could even regain her senses, Sakura felt Sasuke's cold hand slowly easing its way up her shirt, heading towards her breasts. She involuntarily shivered beneath his touch and slowly began arching her back up towards him in reflex. Her entire body felt as if it were on fire. Mentally, however, she was in turmoil.

Her mind was screaming for her to stop this, and every fiber of her being urged her to do so. Every ounce of dignity and sanity she had left was telling her that she needed to stop him now before things got out of hand. However, her body felt paralyzed. And she was now in a situation of which she lacked control. This wasn't good at all.

_'Just push him away, Sakura! You do not want to do this with him, not now or ever. Think straight. This is the boy who hurt you. He is the person who you had cried yourself to sleep over on many occasions. This is Uchiha Sasuke. You have got to stop him now before it's too late!'_

Her mind was screaming at her. Screaming for her to stop what was happening. Screaming all of the reasons why this was a bad thing. But even though her head continued to scream at her, her entire body was frozen solid, unable to move an inch to push him away.

_'Why am I not moving?!' _She wonders to herself in a frantic inner panic.

_'Come on, Sakura! Move!' _Her head screams again at her in frustration.

During her mental dilemma, Sasuke's hand had began unbuttoning her pajama top, slowly revealing her uncovered breasts. The cool air blowing against her skin from the lacking of clothing was enough to make Sakura snap out of her silent reverie enough to place her hand on his chest.

Their kisses weren't registering. They were just happening. His hands weren't being felt, they were just moving. Sakura wasn't completely a part of the situation at hand, and that was very bad considering things would only end horribly wrong for her unless she decided to do something about what was going on. And so, finally, she broke the kiss and began to speak.

"Sasuke-kun, stop..." She choked out at barely a whispering volume. Sasuke's entire body went rigid as his eyelashes fluttered open revealing his cold black eyes boring down at her.

"What's wrong?" He asked, hoping that whatever was bothering her was fixable so that he would be able to immediately return kissing her. Before she responded, Sakura placed a hand on his chest and pushed him backwards, forcing him to go into an upright sitting position, of which she followed in suit. Taking a large gulp, Sakura began to speak.

"I don't want this... Please... just stop..." Sasuke turned his body so that he was facing forward on the couch as he ran his fingers through his hair, sighing loudly in frustration.

"Why not?" He asked, as if it were such a simple question. The question, of course, was simple. It was the answer to said question that was incredibly difficult for Sakura to answer.

After all, what was she supposed to say in response? That she was trying her hardest to stop loving him? That she didn't want to have children with him? That she didn't want anywhere near him at that very moment in time? I mean honestly, how does someone answer that kind of question?

Thinking better of the situation, Sakura decided to flat out lie to Sasuke.

"I'm not ready for that kind of thing. I don't even know if I want to be with you... I'm sorry Sasuke, but I'm not some cheap slut who is willing to put out automatically just because you're good looking and have a incredibly notorious bloodline. I'm not that type of girl."

Sasuke's eyes shifted towards Sakura who was sitting beside him with her knees at her chest as she nervously chewed on her thumb nail, her eyes facing downwards.

"I never said that you were any of that, did I?" He responded calmly.

"Well, no... but I want you to understand that this is... it's not... I just... I don't want this. I'm sorry, you should really work on finding another kunoichi who would be willing to give up their status as a ninja in order to put in a full time position as a mother and wife."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed almost halfway shut as he began to slightly glare at her for what she had just said to him. In all honesty, he didn't see what the big deal was, because he couldn't look at his proposal towards her in any other way besides what he wanted. To him, this wasn't about her. It was never about her. It was about him and reviving his fallen clan.

"Sakura," he began before pausing a moment in order to carefully gather his words, "do you still love me? At all?" Sakura's head immediately shot up as she began gaping at him in shock of his question. Immediately, her heart began racing in panic. What should she tell him? Should she lie and say that no, she didn't feel love for him anymore? Or should she tell the truth and give him something to work against her with.

"I'm... I don't feel comfortable answering that question, Sasuke. Sorry." She coolly responded.

"Why?" She asked after a short pause, the volume of her voice lowering a fraction.

"Well, because if you do still love me, then it would be all the more reason for you to agree to do this favor for me. After all, wasn't it you who said that you'd do anything for me all of those years ago?"

Sakura bit down on her bottom lip nervously. Yes, she said that. But she was twelve at the time, and madly in love with him. But years had gone by; years she had spend growing; years without him being in her life. Those years were what pushed her willingness to do just about anything for him into the back of her mind. Time changes everything—age, personality, looks, feelings. It is literally impossible for one person to stay in the same place for that many years.

Sakura had changed as a person into something truly great. She was the apprentice of the Fifth Hokage. She was one of Konoha's top medical shinobi. She could pack a punch that destroyed bits of Earth. She had blossomed into someone far more mature, and far more wise, than the person she had been when she was twelve.

And the irony of all of it, was that he was her motivation for change. He was the drive that kept her going; the rift that pushed her closer towards greatness. And now, he was also playing the role of trying to take away everything she had accomplished. Had Sasuke only wanted perhaps one child, Sakura would have considered his proposal. One child was perfectly enough for her. But he planned to revive an entire clan. That meant making babies—as many as she possibly could with him—and retiring early on in her life to raise said children.

Sakura just couldn't fathom the thought of having to give up on everything—her hopes and dreams; her work; and her passion for doing it each day. She couldn't imagine not being a shinobi anymore. No more missions, no more exercise, none of that ever again.

"I'm not the same person that I was when I was twelve, Sasuke. When you left, everything changed. Everything in our lives. I've become someone who is actually useful as a shinobi. I treat injured and ill people and I am more passionate about doing that than anything else. That comes hand in hand with being a shinobi and I love what I do. You're asking if I still love you? I'm not gonna lie, I do. But what you want, and what I want, are two completely different things."

"I see..." Sasuke's eyes shifted towards the floor again as he slouched his shoulders in defeat. He wasn't sure if he was completely willing to give up on her yet, despite everything she had said. Of course, he would never force himself upon her, but he needed to figure out a way to get her to agree to what he wanted. Now, all that was left to do was figure out how he was going to do that.

Sakura had stood up and went towards her bedroom. It was late and she had a shift the following day at the hospital. Sasuke was so deep in thought, that he had noticed that she'd left until her heard the sound of her door clicking shut. His eyes darted towards the closing door before resuming his deep gaze at the floor, an array of thoughts flowing wildly in his mind. It was definitely going to be a long night.

* * *

**A/N: **Angst. Nearly a lemon, but not (Sorry about that, but there just isn't enough built up in the story for that yet). I wanted to get this chapter updated asap so it wound up being kind of short (10 pages long). But I'm okay with that. Please, R&R.


	8. Used

That entire night, Sakura tossed and turned restlessly in her bed. Her entire mind was consumed by thoughts of what had happened between her and Sasuke that night, and they were keeping her from sleeping. This wasn't good. She had a shift to cover at the hospital in the morning and if she didn't get her rest now, she was bound to crash during work hours, and that certainly wouldn't do.

_'Wasn't it you who said you would do anything for me all of those years ago?' _Sasuke's voice echoed in her mind.

_'Do you still love me? At all?'_ Sakura slammed her pillow over her face, mentally willing the memories to stop.

_'You know what I want, Sakura.' _

She **couldn't** help him revive his clan. At least, that's what she kept telling herself. Because over the years of her training, she has gained the ability to finally be willing to put herself _**ahead**_ of Sasuke Uchiha, both in her mind and in her life. She didn't build her world around him anymore, and she most certainly was not going to be held back by him either.

_'I'm not that type of girl.' _

She wasn't the type of girl who would be willing to run at his beck and call anymore. She had forced herself to gain the ability to resist those urges years ago and she'd be damned if she allowed herself to fawn over him ever again. She wasn't twelve-years-old anymore. She wasn't some lovesick preteen girl anymore. She was practically an adult in age, and by shinobi standards, she was just that—a legal adult.

She had her own place, she paid her own bills, she did her own work and put forth her own effort on her own terms. Her true strength had originally stemmed from wanting to prove herself not to be weak anymore. Now that she's achieved that, her strength comes from her sheer desire to push forward.

_'Why me?' _She mentally wondered to herself. Why did she have to endure so much mental and emotional torture? And from one person, no less. Sighing deeply into the pillow, which now lay limply on her face, Sakura wracked her brain for some sort of answer as to how she was going to deal with all of Sasuke's advances towards her. Because she knew that in time, she may not be strong enough to say 'no' to him. She may give in and make a huge mistake.

Her willpower was strong, but it wasn't iron strong. She had boundaries and limits as to how much torture she could take from him. She wanted him to get his own place so that she could go on with her life, avoiding his existence; as if he was never real at all. Then, she could someday find someone else who can make her happy, perhaps, and further down the line, even have a family with them. Sasuke was the person she loved with all of her being, however, he wasn't the person she should or rather, could, be with. Her heart simply couldn't bare to lose him again.

She knew what being with him would ensue. He was a cold person a good 90% of the time, and he would act no differently as her boyfriend or even as her husband. She didn't want to be married to a human block of ice—it would be too unbearable.

_'But then again, what was all of this recent emotion that he's been showing? He's been overly expressive lately, I mean, sure, it's lust that he's been expressing (that damn bastard), but still... what do I make of that? Maybe I could give things a shot as simply dating first and if I'm not happy, I'll end it...'_

Sakura's mind raced with scenarios of the likes of which she'd never imagined before. Sasuke's personality has changed since the time she had met him in the Academy, and he's a lot less cold now, or at least, he was whenever he wanted something from her.

It was about midnight when Sakura sprung out of bed, having not slept a minute despite having headed to bed around 9:00. Her mind was too frazzled and she wasn't going to get any sleep at the rate she was going in. She needed to talk to Sasuke, and now.

"Sasuke-kun!" she yelled as she knocked on his door. Almost instantaneously she was met face to face with an annoyed looking, shirtless Sasuke.

"Can I help you? I was in the middle of sleeping, ya know." Sasuke scowled and Sakura did her best to ignore what he said as she entered his bedroom and sat down on his bed.

"Sasuke," she began. Her tone was unsteady and nervous, but she did her best to keep it together. "What do you want from me? Other than helping you revive your clan, why the hell have you been so persistent on trying to be with me?"

Sasuke blinked his eyes a few times, the sleepiness immediately leaving them. Rubbing his hands down his face, he sat down on the bed next to her, his eyes gazing sharply at the floor below in deep thought.

"What has you bringing this up? And this late at night, no less." Sasuke calmly asked, though his voice was tinged with slight irritation.

Sakura let out a long sigh in frustration as she ran her fingers gently through her hair. Immediately, she stood up and began pacing around the room with her head in her hands, her mind racing as her thoughtful expression painted itself across her face.

"I can't sleep now. I've been too busy thinking about everything that's happened and dammit, for the life of me, I can't figure out why you're doing what you've been doing. Why have you decided all of a sudden that you want me to help you revive your clan?" Her eyes darted towards him, but her movements never ceased.

"I am probably the most emotionally unstable kunoichi in this entire village! I have had to literally kill myself emotionally just to try to get over you the last few years, and now here you are, asking me to do something that I would have given anything to be able to consent to... when I was twelve... not now... And just... Why me, huh? Why the hell did you have to screw my entire world up by asking me to do that?"

Sasuke watched as Sakura paced back and forth like a cat in heat. Her body was moving so fast, and his tiredness wasn't helping him at all. He was cranky; his mind was unthinking at the moment; and he honestly didn't know what to tell her. He honestly wanted to tell her the truth, he just didn't know how to word it.

"I can't love you anymore, Sasuke." He noted mentally that she said "can't", not "don't".

"I can't keep pretending that you and I are going to someday be together, happy and a family, because we wont." That hurt him the slightest bit, but he had no idea why.

"I can't be who you want me to be, Sasuke. I can't just do what you want simply because you want it. I have to want it too."

_'What the hell is she going on about?' _He silently wondered to himself. Who did he want her to be, other than the mother of his children?

"I love you, Sakura..." The words came out before he could even think them through, and Sakura stopped dead in her tracks. Her entire body went numb as her blood pumped straight into her cheeks, her ears. Her face felt as though it were about to melt away, and her heart was beating at a mile a minute. What did he just say? What the _hell_ did he just say?

"...What?"

Her voice was so soft, so terrified, he had to do a double take. Was this really how Sakura felt towards him? Afraid? What did she have to be afraid of? She was regarded as one of the most powerful kunoichi in the entire village, not to mention she was notorious for her reputation as the apprentice of a Sannin. So then, why would she be _afraid_ of him?

Was it because of what he did to her all of those years ago? Leaving her alone on that cold, park bench, only to try and kill her over the following years? Perhaps that was it...

_And boy was he dense for not being able to figure out the truth._

She wasn't afraid of him for what he had already _**done**_ to her; she feared what he was capable of doing to her heart, _again._ The boy had the power over her to literally destroy her heart, over and over and over again as he pleased. And the worst part was, he didn't even realize he could do so.

"I said, I love you."

Immediately, Sakura stood up from the bed facing away from him. Her arms crossed over her chest as she began to silently make her way towards the door. Finally reaching the door, she paused momentarily to whisper something to him.

"You don't even know what love is, Sasuke-kun. You don't love me. You just want me to have your children... I should have never woken you up tonight... This was all a mistake... Gomen..."

Within seconds, Sasuke had made his way towards her, stopping her from exiting the room. He instantly grabbed her arm and pried it away from her torso, pinning it against the door. Her other arm remained pressed firmly against her stomach, and she had no idea what he was doing.

And then, before she could even blink at him, he had pinned the rest of her body to the bedroom door with his own body, his lips pressed tightly against hers. She instantly caved beneath him and her body worked against her, returning the kiss just as roughly. Wrapping an arm around her waist, Sasuke hoisted her up into the air and she instinctively wrapped her legs around his hips.

What the hell was she doing? That's the only question her mind seemed to be repeating over and over in her head. But for the life of her, she couldn't figure out the answer to that question. The only logical answer to that question was that for once, she was giving in and letting things go wherever they would lead.

Now, whether or not that would end well was an entirely different story. And Sakura really needed to come to her senses and regain at least a morsel of her self-control back before the two of them did something they—or rather, she—would regret later.

Everything felt like a blur, and her head was completely spinning in circles at a mile a minute. The next thing she could register in her mind is that she was now laying on the bed with Sasuke on top of her, his lips still moving quickly against her own.

She peeked one eye open among the chaos around her and saw this his long eyelash painted eyes were fluttered closed and that he looked absolutely content at that very moment. It was that realization alone that made stopping him a thousand times harder. The fact that he was so peaceful now, a complete contrast from how he usually looked—stoic—was a miracle in itself and considering the life Sasuke had lived before that very moment.

And so, for just one night, she allowed herself to let go...

**((I can't get into a lemon people... not for this story...))**

The following morning, Sakura was awoken to an empty bed and Sasuke was nowhere in sight. She gazed around the room panicked before spotting a small yellow note taped to the door. Standing up wrapping the sheet around her body, Sakura slowly began walking towards the note to read whatever it was that Sasuke said to her.

Glancing at it, she realized something that she never had before. Sasuke's handwriting was very sloppy. She squinted her eyes trying to make out all of the letters correctly. Finally, she made out what he had written her.

_**About last night... Try not to think of it as more than it was. And don't mention it to anyone. If you do, I'll deny it. Sakura, I think it's time I move out. That's where I am right now, actually. I'm requesting to move out of the apartment with the Hokage.**_

And that was it. Sakura choked out a sob and felt bile rising into her throat. All of that fighting he did to get her to have sex with him... all of that torment... and now what? He was done with her? The previous night was a huge blur for her regardless. Even if she wanted to tell someone, there was a lot of gaps and pieces missing from her recollection, and she faintly wondered if he had used his sharingan on her to tamper with her memories. She shortly afterwords dismissed the thought. Sakura pressed the note to her lips as she silently sunk to the floor, tears streaming down her face.

"_**I still press your letters to my lips.**_

_**And cherish them in parts of me,**_

_**And savor every kiss..."**_

**Author's note: **Well, updating on my real life Sasuke has been... horrible lately, I'm not gonna lie. I have a boyfriend now and I'm trying to be happy... but... I pretend to hate the bastard for the things he did to me... I have every right to wish the worst of things to happen to him... And I do... But... Today's update was the worst. Apparently his pregnant girlfriend...thing... (they're apparently broken up now) is living with him. He's cheating on her with some other girl. He gave up parental rights to his unborn child. He's disgusting and that could have been me which makes me even more sick to my stomach. I hate him. And hatred, stems from love. And I hate this... Anyways, I'm sorry this update was so short but I know a lot of you were waiting on it, and it's only 4 pages long and I'm ashamed of myself. I've just been busy and trying to move on with my life but I wanna finish this story and Yours To Hold... Good luck to me with that. Sorry again.


	9. Hatred

Sasuke opened the door to an empty living room, and entered into an even emptier house. It was around 6:30 in the evening and he couldn't sense any of Sakura's chakra. At the moment, he felt a tinge of guilt probing his stomach, as well as dread, though he hid it quite well outwardly. The hokage, of course, denied his request, stating that it was still far too soon for him to be trusted living without a guardian, and that he would have to suck it up and put up with Sakura.

And THAT was the part he was dreading the most. Sakura. What had happened last night he had dubbed a mistake; an accident. It was a misfire in judgment on his behalf and it was definitely not what he had expected.

_**

* * *

Flashback:**_

"_Sasuke-kun!" Sakura screamed, her face contorted in pain as Sasuke thrust himself into her for the first time. Instantly, his entire body froze upon realizing that she had truly saved herself for him._

_'Shit!' he thought to himself, but knew it was far too late to back out now._

"_No... don't worry about it... it'll pass... it's not like it's my first time, or anything." _

…

_'Wait, what? Is she serious?' No matter how hard he heard her words repeat in his head, he couldn't find a tinge of sarcasm behind them. So, Sakura wasn't a virgin, huh? Then why the hell was she in so much pain right now?_

* * *

Sasuke's fist tightened in anger, and he could not figure out why he was so upset. He wasn't a virgin either, after all. So why should he care if she was a virgin or not? Oh right... because he had convinced HER that he WAS.

_'Used goods. She's nothing but used goods now. I mean, I have no real room to talk considering how many women I had been with during my time as a rogue shinobi, but still... it's different when women aren't virgins... It becomes... obvious.'_

Sasuke cringed as dark thoughts popped into his head, mostly about who Sakura had given her virginity up to. In his mind, he began to go over the Rookie 9's male population, trying to figure out who would have been a potential suitor and match for Sakura, at least enough for her to give up her virginity to.

The first person he thought of was Shikamaru, but he immediately dismissed that thought, knowing that the Shadow Manipulating shinobi was far too lazy to be even remotely interested in engaging himself in sex. Then, his mind shifted to Neji. Neji was always a possibility, simply for the fact that other than him being a member of the Hyuuga family, as well as a child prodigy, Sasuke knew absolutely nothing else about him.

Sakura didn't seem like the type of person who would take interest in someone like Kiba, or Chouji – nothing against either personally, but Sakura wasn't compatible with either of them. It couldn't possibly have been one of the Sand siblings—Gaara was too cold, and Kankuro just didn't seem like the type of person interested in things such as sex and relationships.

Then, he wondered for a moment if perhaps she would have given her virginity up to his replacement. What was his name again? Sai. Yeah, that's right... Sai.

Sasuke immediately dismissed that thought after remembering that Sai was a completely emotionless human being. He was the type of person who would just be unable to grasp the concept of love and lust, let alone being interested in engaging in sex.

After that, there was really only one person left—Naruto. Sakura and Naruto had really seemed to have gotten close with one another during his absence. Also, Sasuke noticed how Naruto had simply... disappeared right after they had both been dismissed (or rather, Sasuke was dismissed... Naruto just left).

Images began to manifest in Sasuke's head as different scenarios between Sakura and Naruto began playing out. Immediately, his jaw tightened and he clenched one of his fists tightly shut, his eyes closing as he tried willing his mind to go entirely blank. After a few moment's, his short moment of jealous dissipated, and Sasuke resumed being as cold as he ever had been.

_'Now then... where the hell is Sakura?' _

Sasuke searched the entire apartment both high and low but still never found Sakura. He figured she had gone out somewhere, and she was more than likely upset, probably even pissed at the moment. For that, he was both relieved and uneasy. If she came home pissed off, he would definitely get the brunt of it all, considering the fact that he was the source of it all.

He honestly wouldn't blame her for hating him now. In all honesty, he didn't know what had compelled him to write those things in that note in the first place. It wasn't like he didn't know how they would affect Sakura. Perhaps that's the reason he had done it at all.

His head was a scrambled mess as of lately. A big part of himself felt drawn to Sakura; he wanted to make her his and only his; he needed her to bare his children and that was it. Other than lust, he literally felt absolutely nothing towards Sakura. If anything, a major part of him hated her, simply for that fact that she STILL annoyed him to no end.

Another part of him, however, knew that nothing good would come out of trying to court someone like Sakura—someone who was clingy and needy; someone who would expect more out of him than he was willing to give; someone who was difficult, and as stubborn as a mule. Those things about her were what irked him to no end, because for one thing, they meant that he couldn't tame her, but also, it meant that she would continue to annoy him in all of the other little ways that she did on a regular basis, just by having such high expectations for him.

At this point in time, Sasuke wasn't sure if he wanted Sakura to bare his children anymore or not. He wasn't certain that she would be up to it, simply for the fact that the more he persists, the more she regains her attachment for him. And to put it simply, he didn't love her. He could lie, and pretend, and say it as many times as he pleased, but in all honesty, he felt absolutely nothing for her, except for lust and annoyance.

When you think about it, lust and annoyance is a horrible combination when used in the same sentence. Someone who you lust after, whom also annoys the life out of you, is NOT someone you should pursue in any way, shape, or form. It's just an inevitable disaster, just waiting to happen.

_'Where the hell is she?' _ He wondered to himself. He figured that her not being there was probably in response to what had happened. But for her, his technically "Legal Guardian", to not be home waiting for him (even if she was hauled up in her room), was strange. The fact that there was no note left behind, was even stranger. But everything in the house looked in order, so it couldn't be as if she was taken against her will or anything like that.

_'No, she would have put up one hell of a fight if that was the case... So then, should I go look for her? She probably doesn't want to be found, especially by me... Though it couldn't hurt to know where she is at the moment...'_

Having decided to take a light "stroll" around Konoha, Sasuke stuffed his hands into his pockets and casually walked out the front door.

It was hot out, hotter than normal, but Sasuke really didn't care about such trivial things as the weather.

_'Who really does anymore?' _He thought to himself idly.

Not long after he began walking through the crowded streets of Konoha, he spotted a blur of pink among the crowd. Deciding that he did not want to be spotted, the raven-haired male darted off into a dark alley stealthily, his onyx eyes fading to red as he activated his Sharingan, the world around him slowing down half speed. Not long after, he noticed Sakura walking alone past the alleyway, and decided to follow her.

He still didn't have full access too his chakra reserves, so rooftop hopping was certainly out of the question right now. Sasuke raised his fingers to his forehead, feeling a dull ache coming on from a combination of the heatwave mixed with his use of his limited chakra. It amazed him to see just how much chakra using his Sharingan burned.

He decided to deactivate his dojutsu for the sake of avoiding a major migraine that he would not be able to have healed as he stealthily did his best to travel through the crowd, curious as to where Sakura was headed, and why she was alone. Surely, he would have figured she'd be with one of her female comrades, or even one of her male ones, probably telling them about what had happened the night before; complaining, or at the very least, getting her feelings off of her chest. But she was alone.

She also seemed to be avoiding the people she knew, because he watched as she passed the Yamanaka girl, all that she could do was wave at her in a short acknowledgment, and continue on past.

_'Definitely not Sakura-like...'_

Sasuke's stealthful journey seemed to end in a part of Konoha he wasn't particularly happy to be in, and it was the most difficult for him to sneak out of the village to get to—the old Uchiha district. He wondered why the hell she was at his family's isolated district, and what she was planning on doing there, but as he watched her, he realized that she wasn't about to do anything. She was lost in her thoughts it seemed, just staring at the empty entrance silently, her eyes occasionally shifting from the boarded up buildings to the vacant dirt roads.

_'Dead. Everything that goes beyond that gate is dead, Sakura. Just like me, dead. Inside... is nothing but death. Why the hell did you pursue this... this monster of a human being? If you can even consider me as that anymore. You'd think that after last night, you'd have realized that I haven't changed at all. I'm selfish. You got what you wanted, a night with the last Uchiha. What more do you want from me? Why are you even reacting this way? You've avoided the house—from the looks of it, all day—and now you're standing in front of MY home. What the hell?'_

Sasuke's anger began to rise in his chest, though he didn't allow it to outwardly show, other than the tight clenching of his jaw.

_'You'll be better off without me... but then... why the hell did **I** pursue **you**? Why did I work so hard to bed you, just to walk away from you afterwords? I swear, I don't even get myself, sometimes..'_

He just continued to watch her, his chakra flickering the smallest amount. Despite his levels being so low, he knew Sakura was an expert at chakra control. Even the faintest flicker, she would know he was there—watching her.

And she did. She knew from the time he first activated his sharingan that he was following her. She never showed it though, never changed her original plan in route. She had planned to go to the Uchiha district all along, but the fact that Sasuke was following her was just an added bonus. Perhaps he would begin festering on everything he had given up once he followed her here.

It amazed her that he took the risk and followed her outside of the gates. She imagined it was a tad bit difficult for him, though she wasn't completely sure considering she never once looked back; never once let him know that she knew he was following her.

That is, until she spoke.

"Do you know why I came here, Sasuke-kun...?"

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock. How the hell did she know he was there?

"How did you know?" he said as he stepped out of the shadows. Sakura laughed dryly at his question before she calmly responded.

"How? Sasuke... I've known from the moment you first activated your sharingan. You didn't answer my question."

Sasuke slowly began walking behind her, but Sakura never turned to look at his face.

"I'm sure you know already, that I cried when I first got your note. I bet you feel real proud of yourself now, don't you?" He didn't respond.

"After all," she continued, "you did bed Konoha's most prestigious and popular kunoichi. But you're nothing special really for doing so, considering..." she paused.

"Considering, that Naruto got there first. You weren't worthy of my first time, Sasuke-kun, and I'm glad you didn't get it. That would have only made this worse on me." Her tone grew as cold as ice as she continued speaking to him; he never once interrupted.

"I always figured I would have regretted losing my virginity to someone else, but you have to understand, I assumed you were never coming back. I hoped and prayed for awhile now that you were never coming back." She turned her head so that only one of her eyes were visible, curtained behind her chin-length bangs.

"But here you are, and have been for the past few weeks now. Do you know why I came here?" She repeated her question, intent on getting some sort of answer from him.

"Because you knew I was following you, right?" He finally spoke, his voice was void, and lifeless as he spoke.

"Actually, no." She began, her eyes focusing on the ground below; the entrance to a massacre. "I came here, not because you were following me, but because I had intended to come here regardless. I came here to see for myself, because I've never actually been to the place where an entire clan was slaughtered by a 13-year-old ANBU." Sasuke's fists clenched. Did she think it was noble that his brother had killed everyone he loved? Did she think it was a joke? Those questions raced through his mind.

"Everyone knows about the famous Uchiha Clan Massacre, but only you can harbor the feelings that followed it. The true pain that comes with the slaughter of a clan; the extinction of a race. I had no family, but I'm sure you never knew that. I'm just like Naruto, an orphan since the time of the Kyuubi attack. My parent's were two of the first jounin killed trying to fend off the attack from the village. I have been alone far longer than you have, Sasuke-kun..."

A small, sad smile graced her lips.

"I didn't know my parents. The Third Hokage made sure I was well to do, because my parents died fighting for our village. He did that for all of the village orphans. How do you think Naruto had a home growing up?" Sasuke said nothing, continuing to listen to what she had to say. He owed her that much.

"When I found out that Naruto was the Kyuubi's vessel, I wasn't angry with him, though you'd probably think I should have been... because, I was matured enough, and close enough to him to have known that he wasn't the Kyuubi..." She paused. "He was simply Uzumaki Naruto... My friend, my comrade... That is what made me love him so much."

Sasuke stared at her, in shock at her words of being an orphan, and the fact that she openly admitted she loved Naruto, though he wasn't quite sure how she meant the word "love".

"I always loved you, but I hated you too." She said, her teeth clenching together before loosening as she continued speaking.

"I hated the fact that you tried to kill us at Orochimaru's lair. I hate the person you became after your clan was killed, though I never got the opportunity to know who you were before they were. But I could imagine, that if you became such a horrible, cold person, you must have been a sweet little boy at some point in time! Someone who made their mother proud to call you her son..." Sasuke's jaw tightened at her words.

"If you knew who I was before everything, you'd be right..." He said, somewhat to himself more than he was to her. But she listened, regardless.

"I was my mother's youngest and last child. I don't think my parents planned to have any more kids anyway. They were in their forties when Itachi..." he stopped, unable to bring the words to his lips. So she did it for him.

"...murdered them, I know. Your parents weren't the only ones murdered, Sasuke. Mine were too, though not in the same way yours were, they were killed before they should have been. I consider that murder." Sasuke took a deep breath before stepping a bit closer towards her, but still managing to keep his distance from her.

"You want a baby so bad, that right now, you don't really care who gives it to you, do you Sasuke?" He said nothing.

"Do you? Really, is that how you want your child to be born? In a loveless or at least one-sided marriage?" Sasuke took a moment to ponder her words, but still said absolutely nothing.

"So you really don't care. You're one selfish bastard, do you know that?" She asked, her anger rising.

"You wouldn't care if you ruined some poor woman's life by forcing her to become a full time baby machine, just to revive your fucking clan?"

"You, of all people, should understand my motives Miss I-Know-Every-Damn-Thing! If I don't start repopulating my clan, my bloodline could die out forever! I'm the last Uchiha! Do you think that I want to have this burden? Of having to breed like a rabbit just to save my family from being extinct? I wanted the same things you did once: a marriage, with someone I loved; a child whom I could teach things. **A **child, being the keyword, but now? I have to have as many as possible. So that they can have babies, and then they can have more babies, and the Uchiha clan can be alive once again."

Sakura turned around to fully face him, her face painted in a mixture of anger, confusion, pity, and disgust.

"Don't expect me to help you, last night was a one time thing. You even said so yourself. Go find some whore to have your precious sharingan babies with. After all, you don't care who carries on your bloodline, right? As long as it lives! And also, Sasuke-SAN, while your at it? Yeah, go to fucking hell! I hate you now, more than I ever did!"

She didn't mean it though, she knew she never could hate him that much.

"In case you haven't noticed, Sakura-CHAN," his calm tone began to rise, "I've been living there since the day my clan was wiped off the face of the Earth! But hey, like Itachi once told me, 'hate me'." Sasuke chuckled dryly, "'Detest me.'" he continued quoting Itachi's last words to him before he left the village, on the night the clan was slaughtered. "It'll help you get stronger, Sakura."

Sakura recoiled from him in disgust.

"Sasuke-kun, hatred never has nor ever will fueled my strength. Because it's my ability to love that has made me stronger. My love for you kept me fighting, my love for Naruto made me trust in his words that as long as I love and care about something, I can achieve it simply by not giving up on it! But you? I give up on you, because you are nothing but a weakness! You never have nor ever will be a strength when it comes to my life. Do you understand that?"

Sasuke closed his eyes before turning around and walking away from her. Sakura stared at his slow retreating back as she put in her final two cents.

"So long, Itachi-incarnate... I hope you can stop hating someone long enough to someday be able to love them."

Well, that pissed him off.

Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks and turned around, his eyes glaring sharply at her.

"Fuck you, Sakura." He whispered, loud enough that she heard him. Sakura responded by smirking.

"Already did. It wasn't that great. Did you notice? I was in too much pain to make a sound. Even afterwords, I said nothing to you."

How? How had she grown so damn cold in less than 24-hours?

Sasuke simply could not, for the life of him, figure it out, but he was fully aware that her coldness towards him was not only genuine, but much deserved.

Sakura's eyes darted to the ground as they clouded over in a brief sorrowful gaze.

"I couldn't speak, even if I wanted to though... I was suffering too much at the time... being with you, I knew it was a lie... I knew it the minute it started... but that look on your face... I couldn't refuse that look even now, even if I tried to..."

Sasuke raised one of his eyebrows.

"Look? What look?" He asked, his voice full of curiosity.

"That look of being at complete ease and bliss for once in your entire life. You had that look, the moment you kissed me, and onward. That look never left your face the entire time. So I let you do whatever you want, because that look... it was a look of being home again, if that makes sense. It's that look of the old Sasuke-kun—the one we fought so hard to bring home; the one we loved so much that we never gave up on, at least, not until the very end. It was like having the old you home again. Do you understand, why I could never turn you down, with that look on your face?"

Sasuke said nothing, but pondered on her words. He didn't recall giving her any look at the time, but he did remember feeling absolutely positively content the entire time they had sex. That's all it was to him, however. Sex. There was no "making love". There was no love. There was a prettily painted lie, coated on with lust, passion, and sympathy.

**

* * *

A/N: **Alright, I'm at the phase in getting over this where I feel a lot of hatred towards him. The only downside to that feeling is that when my hatred surfaces, I take it out on people I care about =/ Damn hatred... damn darkness... But it feels so damn great... Blah. Anyways, I didn't expect to finish this chappy so fast o.o Quick update? Ftw? Yeah, review please? 3~


	10. Submission

The following weeks weren't as awkward as before, but it was just the same that the two would never go back to how they were before. How could they possibly?

Sex changes everything. Especially meaningless sex. Sex that can leave a person feeling so degraded that they simply want to curl up into a little ball and die. That's how Sakura felt now.

Eventually, Sasuke came to a breaking point, unable to leave the doors closed on their standing point any longer, feeling that annoying compulsion to pry where he honestly wished he wouldn't. And so he asked her the question that had been plaguing his mind for weeks now.

"So, I take it there won't be any repeats of... well, you know..." Sasuke asked hesitantly, his eyes never leaving Sakura's face, studying her for an expression, any expression at all. As soon as the words left his lips, Sakura's body immediately stiffened, stopping what she was doing instantly.

"No. In fact, I was doing my best to forget all about it before you had so _wonderfully _brought it back up." Her words were colder than usual regarding this subject, and Sasuke didn't blame her a bit.

After they had left the Uchiha District, neither had said more than five words to one another, sticking with speaking when necessary, which was almost never. They didn't need to communicate in order to live together. Sasuke had told Sakura that his request to move out had been denied, and she didn't say a single word in response. She simply nodded her head in understanding instead. That's it, though. There wasn't a conversation about the subject of him moving out. There wasn't conversation anymore period. Thing's weren't exactly what you would call "awkward", but rather, distancing for them both.

Much to Sakura's relief, Sasuke was no longer on constant watch and both of the young shinobi were free to come and go as they pleased without the company of the other, as long as both remained within the village gates. However, if for any other reason, they were to leave—or more particularly, if Sasuke were to leave—Sakura or someone else must accompany him.

Sasuke spent most of his time at the training grounds, often leaving the apartment before the sun came up, and not coming home until all of the light from the sun vanished. Sakura, on the other hand, spent most of her time at the hospital, going about her day-to-day medic duties just as she always had. Her work days would begin around 7:00 AM, and end around 9:00 PM. After she would be at home, she found other small means of occupying her time, trying her best not to 'wait up' for Sasuke.

Although she didn't give a damn about him at the moment, she still had a bad habit of wondering when he would be coming home each night. And it drove her absolutely insane, because she wanted nothing more than to NOT care about anything regarding Sasuke. And it was because she knew that in her heart and mind, HE didn't give a damn about anything regarding her. And that killed her a tiny bit more inside each time she thought about it.

Usually, she would prepare herself to go to sleep in order to pass the time. She'd take long, relaxing baths, and then, when the water would get cold, around an hour later, she'd finally get out, get dressed for bed, and then sleep; wake back up, and do it all over again the next day.

Their lives were becoming more and more redundant as the days passed on, and as time continued passing by, neither hardly spoke to one another. Before long, a month had gone by without much being said to one another. Missions had grown very slow as of lately, not only for Team 7, but for most of the shinobi in the village. Those who weren't spending their time taking easy were assigned lower ranking missions as a means of earning some extra cash. It usually wasn't much, but money is money.

In a way, Sakura was glad there hadn't been any missions assigned to Team 7 specifically for the past month, because that meant she could continue avoiding talking to Sasuke by all means necessary. She had also mentioned to the Hokage about their "hostile living situation", making sure **not** to tell her shishou WHY they weren't talking to one another regularly, but instead explaining that they were just two very different people who were never going to get along with one another in the same way as they once had back when they first became Genin. So, as a favor to Sakura, Tsunade agreed to deeply _**consider **_ allowing Sasuke to move out of Sakura's apartment sometime in the near future.

Of course, this made both Sakura and Sasuke happier than anything, though they never said so aloud to one another. Finally, Sakura thought, she could begin moving on with her life away from Sasuke. It wouldn't be too difficult of a task considering they hadn't really ever been that close to begin with. And also, not counting that one night of meaningless sex with one another, they hadn't been that intimate with one another (at least, not on a mutual level).

The one downside to their constant ignoring of one another was that Sakura had been slacking on her optic research regarding Sasuke's sharingan and rapid blindness. She knew that his Mangekyo was the cause of his gaining blindness, but she had absolutely no clue how to either reverse the effects nor how the sharingan caused it.

She knew that there was going to eventually come a day when Sasuke's eyes would need some major repairing or else he would in fact become blind and lose his ability to fulfill his shinobi duties. That would also mean that he would need someone around all of the time to help him adjust to his daily life in permanent darkness. Judging by experience, Sakura knew her shishou would jump on the opportunity to volunteer Sakura for that very duty.

It was a pain in the neck, but she knew that his condition was only getting worse as more time passed. Sakura would have to go to the Uchiha clan's records and find out whatever she could medically regarding the Sharingan and it's functions and/or side effects.

But until then... she would stall for time. She wasn't sleeping at night a lot, so she was tired. And when she was tired, she thought about everything going on in her life. For the first time in how long, she realized, that everything going on in her life just happened to be Sasuke.

_His face. His eyes. His attitude. His moods. His touch. His smell. His taste. That night. Everything._

_'Why can't I get him out of my head? I'm never going to be able to function properly at work like this..' _She thought to herself.

_'Do I want a repeat of that night?'_

A part of her, honestly, did. Because for the first time in her entire time of knowing Sasuke, she seen him at peace. And right after they were done, he was lost again. A part of her perhaps assumed that by being together, she could keep him at peace. She could save his soul from the darkness constantly engulfing him. But truly, could she save him?

"What are you staring at?" he asked, ripping her from her thoughts.

It was raining again, as it had been on and off for the last two weeks. They were, once again, holed up inside of the apartment because of the weather and a lack of missions.

"Huh?" she asked, confused and lost again in his eyes.

"You were staring at me; thinking. I want to know why." he said softly.

_'His voice is so soft,'_ she mused.

_'So calm. But his eyes... his eyes are chaotic. Unsettling. He can't hide his eyes from me.'_

Connection. That's what they had the night their bodies joined for the first time. It was a connection that couldn't be severed. From now on, if the other was hurt, there would be concern – a MUTUAL concern. If the other was sad, the other would be too. They were bonded, whether he liked it or not.

Light. That's what they were anymore. They were each others light, and there wasn't a thing they could do about it. Without that light, they would lose themselves forever.

* * *

"_**I couldn't face a life without your light..."**_

_**

* * *

**_

But there was nothing now, it seemed. Too much tension.

"Just thinking... sorry for staring," she replied and her eyes shifted off to the side. She stood up and walked into the kitchen, as she had been once again in the living room. Sasuke's eyes never left her figure. She wasn't hungry; she wasn't thirsty. But she had an apple and a knife. She was going to peel it and eat it, even though she wasn't hungry. She didn't even like apples all that much, come to think of it.

But she wanted to pretend she was doing something—anything—to convince him not to question what she was thinking about. He didn't need to know anymore about what was going on in her head than he already knew, which was little to nothing. But luck was never on her side.

"What were you thinking about, Sakura?"

He was behind her and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Her entire body stiffened up but she never moved.

"Nothing..." she whispered almost to herself, it was so soft, so _petrified. _He petrified her more than anything on this planet. Why? Why did he have to have so much power over her?

"You're lying," he whispered in her ear. "Why won't you just tell me?" he wondered. Finally, she turned around to face him and they were mere inches from one another.

"Because you never tell me anything, why should I tell you anything?" she said and pushed him out of the way, damn near storming out of the kitchen. But he wasn't done with her, not by a long shot.

The tension was eating him alive in that house and something had to give. He had her grabbed by the arm, not rough enough to bruise her flesh, but firm enough to keep her still. She stopped dead in her tracks being pulled backwards. Spinning on her heels to scream at him, to tell him to let her go, she was met face to face with him.

His lips were on her sooner than she could bare. No time to put up her wall, so it stayed down and she kissed him back. There were no thoughts, there was nothing. But she could feel – oh, could she feel, alright. And she felt pain. So much fucking pain. The one feeling he's always caused her professionally. Pain.

_'Don't do this...'_

He was kissing her, trying to coax her into something she did not wanna go into again. Sex. It became clear what he wanted from her from the get go. But she hoped in her heart that he would love her as a result if she gave it to him.

So she didn't fight him and just simply surrendered, right there on the floor.

* * *

"_**...But all of that was ripped apart, when you refused to fight..."**_

_**

* * *

**_

There was shame. So much shame. And guilt, definitely guilt. She felt so sick because her gut told her it wasn't right. She had more to herself than that. But she loved him. Oh Kami, she fucking loved him. She loved him with every breath she took, with every beat of her heart. She loved him and she forgave him for humiliating her like this. She forgave him for raping her soul of the very life that was her.

_'Because he'll always be the one thing I cannot help but to surrender to. He'll always be the voice in my head; the face in my heart... there will always be Sasuke...Sasuke...Sasuke...'_

"Sasuke!" she screamed, over and over again. The satisfaction he got in hearing her scream his name, over and over again. It was like a mantra she kept repeating. But there was no -kun. There was never enough time for a thought process of honorifics. So for tonight, he was simply Sasuke as he thrust into her, over and over again.

He never knew this, but after he was done with her, when she'd shower afterwords, she'd hold a rag over her face and cry. She'd cry so hard, she felt like she was dying. Because she knew he didn't love her. She knew how much he lied and pretended. But she mostly cried because she wanted it to be real. So in her head, maybe she could pretend it was real. Maybe she could put out from now on and pretend it was real.

"Sasuke, what do you want from me?" she asked him afterwords. He was lying on top of her after his release, his black eyes staring into her green eyes, gazing into the windows of her very soul.

"I want...an heir..." he whispered and crushed his lips to hers. She had no time to respond, no time to think. Because Sasuke wanted round two. He wanted an heir. Who cared if she consented? But she did... she kissed him back. She met his thrusts. She called his name. Because no matter what happened, he would always consume her. He would always hold her heart in his palm, and whatever he wanted, he would get.

**

* * *

A/N: **Alright that's enough of that... lol it's kinda short but it's an update. So R&R and I'll love you all. Sorry if it was confusing, my head was racing as I wrote this.


	11. Mine

Nothing seemed to make sense to her at this point, because love seemed to be clouding her vision. Her head, on the one hand, was constantly screaming at her to stop Sasuke from getting any closer to her heart. He was too close for comfort and who knew if he would leave her again; leave Team Seven?

She couldn't let him into her heart anymore than he already was, it wouldn't be logical! But then again, logic was never her strong suit. And as her heart tried to convince her head that it was possible for Sasuke to develop some form of 'love' for her, she, against her own awareness, began to believe it.

It was about four-thirty in the morning and she had yet to fall asleep. Her mind was too busy racing with thoughts of everything, herself and Sasuke, as well as what was going to happen in the future.

He wanted an heir. He told her so plainly that there was no way she could have possibly misunderstood him. He wanted a child and he had already chosen the mother. Sakura groaned and rolled over onto her side, staring at the window as her thoughts continued racing.

After everything that had happened and looking back at a time when Sakura was openly head over heels for Sasuke—when she was _weak—_she would have given anything for this opportunity. But she wasn't twelve-years-old anymore and her plans for the future had in fact changed drastically. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to ever get married, let alone have children. No, those dreams died a long time ago, when she realized how far gone he was.

It was almost as if he were forcing her into this decision, something that Sakura was NOT comfortable with in the least bit. But then... why did she surrender to him, yet again? Why didn't she push him away this time? Why didn't she just say no? She was so confused about it all and it was keeping her from resting.

After the kitchen incident, things were silent for a long time. Long after the two had parted to their own respected bedrooms, they had yet to say a single word to one another regarding the events that had just taken place. Honestly, Sakura had no idea what she could say to him about it; she didn't even know her feelings towards the subject entirely yet.

Sasuke, on the other hand, being quiet by nature, didn't say anything simply for the fact that he had nothing left to say. He got his point across and from the looks of it, Sakura had no objections, or at least, that's what he assumed by her silence.

He wasn't sure what exactly it was about Sakura that made him choose her—a former Sasuke Uchiha fangirl—to be the future mother of his children; the woman he would continue the Uchiha bloodline with. She wasn't the most practical choice, he had to admit, considering all of the harshness and intensity going back and forth between the two of them. That alone was proof that they weren't exactly compatible.

Perhaps he did it because he thought she was 'convenient'. Perhaps he did it because he assumed she would be an easy target considering her feelings towards him. He wasn't sure what the answer was, however, he knew that he was going to have to act differently around her in order to get her compliance, kinder even. That alone was going to prove to be a difficult task in itself.

Finally realizing that there was no way she would be sleeping tonight, Sakura kicked the covers off of herself and climbed out of bed, her feet making way towards the door as quietly as she could be. Her destination was the kitchen so that she could get something to drink.

The moment she opened the door, she noticed a bright light coming from the direction of the kitchen. Raising an eyebrow, she began slowly tip-toeing towards the source of the light, assuming that it was her refrigerator being open or something. Finally reaching the kitchen, she discovered that her thoughts were correct and she was met with the open fridge door with black spikes protruding just above the top.

_'Sasuke.' _ she thought and rolled her eyes.

"What are you doing up?" she asked him. Closing the fridge and holding a carton of milk, Sasuke looked at Sakura with a raised eyebrow.

"I should be asking you the same thing," he replied before turning towards the cupboard for a glass. Sakura watched him carefully and simply shrugged.

"Can't sleep..." she replied hesitantly before continuing. "I figured I'd get something to drink or something... I don't know..." she muttered the last bit, her eyes shifting off to the side with a hint of sadness in them.

"Oh?" he responded before turning around and handing her the glass of milk. She took it gratefully and Sasuke poured himself a glass.

"Yeah...thanks," she responded, in reference to the milk. Sasuke simply nodded in response and she began to sip on her milk slowly, her eyes never leaving Sasuke's general direction. He stood there leaning against the counter about five feet away from her at most, his eyes also glancing in her general direction as he sipped on his glass of milk.

"I doubt I'm going to get any sleep tonight at this rate," she muttered to herself. Sasuke merely looked at her, not being one for many words. He did, however ask her why.

"Just... a lot is on my mind" she replied. Sasuke remained quiet as he stared at her. Feeling his eyes boring into her, she gave him a look that clearly asked him a silent 'what?', causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"Hn," he replied. And they for once let it go, both too tired to debate anything. Even if it were later in the day, or any time for that matter, Sasuke wasn't one who talked about how he felt. It was against his pride. It was against him. _She was beneath him._

_

* * *

_"_**So save your breath, I will not care."**_

_**

* * *

**_Neither Sakura nor Sasuke slept that night and the next day left them both feeling groggy. Sasuke, being used to sleepless nights, wasn't too phased by his lack of rest, but Sakura was hit with her newly found insomnia the hardest. She needed her energy—and chakra—in order to function properly in the hospital that day. She would need to take a lot of energy pills on this day.

That is, assuming she had to work. But alas, it seems that the day had more in store for them.

On her way to the hospital, Sakura was stopped by a messenger hawk, alerting her that she was being summoned by Tsunade. She had parted ways with Sasuke back at the house, so little did she know she would be meeting him there as well.

During her walk to the tower, Sakura went over in her head possible reasons for her being summoned there.

_'Perhaps there is a mission for Team 7...'_

That was her first thought, and it was very plausible. They had been allowed to do some C- and D-rank missions as Tsunade's method of keeping them on active shinobi duty without enabling Sasuke an opportunity to escape the village again. The gates were guarded much heavier anymore for that reason alone, and if he were to be caught again leaving the village without reason, his punishment would be death. That much had been made very clear.

Sakura looked up ahead of her and noticed her raven-haired housemate approaching the tower from the opposite direction—the direction of the Uchiha compound. She wondered idly to herself what on earth he had been doing there considering how he felt about the place. But she didn't dwell upon that thought too much.

Seeing Sasuke headed for a familiar destination merely added to her theory of a possible mission and as she began walking up the stairs of the Hokage tower, Sasuke having entered shortly before she did, she began to fully expect Kakashi, Naruto, Yamato, and Sai to be waiting inside of the office for her.

When she finally reached the Hokage's office she was surprised to see that it was only Sasuke waiting for her, alongside Tsunade, who was sitting at her desk.

"Ah, Sakura-chan, come in." Tsunade replied with a sly smile, and Sakura hesitantly entered the office, closing the door.

"You do recall the request for housing replacement, right?" Tsunade asked, not really beating around the bush about what she had to inform the two shinobi. Sakura nodded her head, her eyes shifting from Tsunade to Sasuke.

"Hai."

Tsunade stood up and leaned against the window sill behind her desk, her arms crossed as she had a somewhat serious expression on her face.

"Well, considering the current living situation has both of you so... uncomfortable... I've made it a point to bump up the process of housing Sasuke to right now. That is, if you two are still interested." Sakura's eyes flickered over to Sasuke, searching his face for some sort of reaction, only to be met with his own black eyes boring back at her.

"What are my options, Hokage-sama?" he politely, yet coldly asked. Tsunade turned her head to look over at Sasuke and she let out a sigh.

"Well, there is an apartment available near Naruto's place, about two buildings away. Or, if you would like, you may move into the old Uchiha district. The choice is completely yours."

Sasuke looked at the ground, pondering upon his options. He didn't have much at Sakura's to begin with but he would be more than happy to move out today. His trademark smirk made its way to his lips and Sakura's expression remained blank as she looked at the two.

_'At least now I'll be rid of him. Maybe I can finally just put him out of my life once and for all... maybe start dating someone... I could be happy... right?'_

Without realizing it, Sakura's face had shifted into a frown, her eyebrows knitted low on her forehead. So lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear Tsunade's irritated tone as she repeated her question.

"I said, is everything alright, Sakura?" Tsunade hated having to repeat herself to anyone, her own apprentice being no exception to that rule.

"Huh?" Sakura looked up confused. "Oh, um.. yes. Sorry, Shishou." Tsunade wasn't buying her answer but let the matter go for the time being.

"Where will you be staying, Sasuke?" Tsunade asked again, her hazel eyes eying him from head to toe.

"The Uchiha District will be fine."

Tsunade pursed her lips and nodded her head before looking at Sakura, searching her face for some sort of reaction. Knowing her student, it was very important for Tsunade to know how Sakura was taking it, but from the looks of it, she was handling it quite well.

"Dismissed."

With that, Sakura and Sasuke both exited the Hokage's office together, both of them walking towards Sakura's apartment in silence. Nothing was said, both too deep in thought to really say much of anything at all. That is, until they got to the house.

"I guess this is goodbye then." Sakura said softly as Sasuke placed his second and final bag by the front door. He stopped and looked at her silently, his only expression change being his eyebrow raising at her in question.

"Goodbye?" he asked after she didn't say anything else for a few moments, her eyes avoiding his own.

"Hai. It's... for the best, Sasuke-kun..." She was treading carefully, because she didn't want to reveal too much to him.

To be honest, she enjoyed having the company of someone living with her, but hated the coldness of her housemate. Sasuke wasn't the kindest person in the world and quite frankly, he had put her through enough already. She couldn't handle it. He had proven his point, and he had to go.

So then... why did she feel so hollow right now?

"For the best?"

His words shook her out of her silent reverie and she looked at him, trying her best to word it in a way that wouldn't piss him off—if he even cared enough to get pissed off at her—but also, in a way that would give him the general idea that whatever was happening between them... the random sex, and the tension... was over.

_'It's for the best... He doesn't care about you... He just wants someone to use to revive his clan.'_

As much as those three thoughts were playing in her head, three others followed suit.

_'But... could he love me? Someday? ...Does this mean anything to him besides just sex?... Where the hell do I go from here?'_

* * *

"_**I think I've made it very clear."**_

* * *

"It's for the best for both of us, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura's voice was heart wrenching and laced full of pain. Sasuke looked at her blankly, unsure of how to react. Was she honestly trying to end what they had going for them? Surely, what they had wasn't exactly... ideal... but it worked for him well enough. He needed someone to revive his clan. Sakura was good enough for that task. He had to do something to change her mind.

And so, he acted without thinking. He had her pinned up against the front door with his hands pinning her arms above her head, and his lips capturing her own. When she finally broke away for some air in between kisses, she muttered the words:

"...Just hate me, Sasuke-kun..."

* * *

"_**You couldn't hate enough to love."**_

* * *

But he didn't stop kissing her and he pressed his lips against hers roughly once again. Hate her? He wanted to hate her. He wanted to loathe her and put her out of his life! That's what he was trying to do, wasn't it? By requesting to be able to live somewhere else, wasn't that what he was trying to accomplish?

But if he hated her, who would revive his clan?

* * *

"_**Is that supposed to be enough?"**_

* * *

His hands were rushed as he started to undress her right there in the living room of their house. He realized not too far in that she was wearing far too many clothes for his liking so he opted just to take her pants and panties off before he entered her, rougher than ever before. He knew it was rougher than she was comfortable with when she let out a scream. But it wasn't his name. It wasn't a word. It was a scream of pain, which he honestly should have been used to hearing from her by now. Pain.

* * *

"_**I only wish you weren't my friend."**_

* * *

He slammed himself into her as hard as he could, not caring if she came to a climax—he had a point to prove. She. Was. His. And she wasn't leaving him. He wasn't leaving her. She WILL revive his clan and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.

His every painful thrust forced her to scream out in agony. She was pinned against the door and unable to do a damn thing about it. He wanted her now. This wasn't about arousal, although it seemed every time he got pissed off at the kunoichi, that's where things led.

* * *

"_**Then I could hurt you in the end."**_

* * *

But this wasn't like before. This was raw. There was no passion, there was no thinking. She wasn't leaving him. He would leave her. That's how it would work. He called the shots or nothing. Sasuke had to be in control.

When he finally reached his climax, he bit her on the collar bone—hard. She screamed yet again, her voice growing hoarse from screaming so much gently he brought them both to the ground and he hovered over her, his eyes never leaving her own.

"This isn't goodbye, Sakura." That was all he said as he stood up and adjusted his clothing. Sakura immediately did the same, her eyes staring back at him in shock.

Sasuke grabbed his bags and walked out the front door, heading off to the Uchiha District.

**

* * *

A/N: **I think I'll leave it at that. Let me know what you think :)


	12. Our Paths

**A/N: **I really do not want to write this story anymore, I'm not gonna lie. I'm in so much fucking pain that I cannot stand it, every time I think of the plot line... and the future outcome... It makes me sick... But I gotta write this story, I gotta get shit out there, and I gotta stop cryin' eventually. You guys keep me going, ya really do. Your comments of support and whatnot are truly something that makes me smile every time I update this story. I am going to be focusing on bringing this fic to an end soon though, so expect that.

**Disclaimer: **Standard disclaimer applies.

* * *

There certainly were a lot of things that had been left to think about now that Sasuke was living at the Uchiha Compound, and their change in living situations had left both parties pondering upon the events that had taken place during the short months that both Sakura and Sasuke had spent living under the same roof as one another.

For one thing, they weren't in a "relationship", and the topic hadn't even come up once during the time that they had been getting closer to one another, despite it being limited to an almost complete sexual level. But when looked at it from another point of view, not everything that had managed to transpire between the two of them had been limited to just sex – they had gotten to know one another better and therefore, a trust was gained between the two of them, no matter how insignificant and small it seemed.

And now, they were living apart, but Sasuke had left her with parting promises of her being entirely his, as if she were some sort of property for him to use at will, which she most certainly was **not**. If there was one thing that Sasuke Uchiha had needed to improve on, it was his opinion towards women as a whole, because he seemed to be lacking a lot in the respect department whenever it came to women, Sakura in particular.

And if all that weren't complicated enough to think about, Sakura still wasn't sure if she even wanted any of this. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that she wanted Sasuke—as if the fact remaining that she still was hopelessly in love with the man was no indicator—but she knew that her feelings were completely one-sided, despite anything he told her stating otherwise.

Knowing a person as heartless and as cold as Sasuke for as long as she did, she knew he lacked the ability to learn how to love someone other than himself over night, and his false promises of love—as scarce as they had been during their time spent together the past few months—were simply that: a false promise that he fed her to try to win her over, but she was much smarter than to fall for something like that.

Perhaps her _pretending_ that he loved her would be enough to make things work out between the two of them? Sakura had actually contemplated the possibility of this. Because everything was so confusing to the two of them anymore – how she felt, how he felt, what they had done, what would happen in the future, etc. At this point in time, Sakura had absolutely no idea what to make of it all and it frustrated her to no end.

_Did he even love her,_ or was she just some sort of _**toy**_ that he felt the urge to continue playing with for his own sick form of entertainment? If the latter was the case, things were going to be ending **very** soon, because Sakura Haruno was nobody's toy, especially not Sasuke's Uchiha's. She had far more self-respect than that.

Sasuke wasn't sure what had happened back at Sakura's apartment that day; it was as if some animalistic instinct took over his entire being and he couldn't regain control over himself until it was all done and over with. And for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. Sakura wasn't even his teammate anymore, so what difference did it make now if they seen each other or not? But a relationship... that was something Sasuke had a problem with.

If he were to actually be in a publicized relationship, that would mean leaving his guard down enough in public to show her affection in front of other people. And if he were to do that, people would underestimate his strength and power. And that was something he wasn't entirely sure he was ready to commit to.

* * *

Love was a weakness. He didn't want someone he could love anyway – he wanted someone to bare him an heir. Whether or not his relationship with the mother was on genuine affectionate terms was never the issue. But even so, for some reason, he couldn't let her walk out of his life.

_She wanted all of this this anyhow, _he figured. Back at the village gates, all of those years ago, she begged for him to take her with him, or at least for him to stay in the village – she wasn't picky on which. But he refused her then. Just like he always did, he refused her.

His heart was so much softer back then, and he'd be a liar to deny that seeing her crying that night didn't pose a number of doubts in his mind about leaving it all behind. But it wasn't out of love, but rather, the fact that he would really be severing his bonds with not only Team 7, but the entire Hidden Leaf Village. This was his home, despite everything that had happened. This would always be his home.

He knew everything about what the elders made Itachi do to his clan. And he wanted blood. He was never supposed to return to this village, other than to watch it become destroyed. But then, things changed in his plan.

He underestimated Naruto's power, which in the end, cost him a battle and his freedom. He was dragged back to this god-forsaken village against his will, and now, he was practically being held captive by it. He supposed that then again, his captivity happened to be a much better option than being executed, so he couldn't complain _**too**_ much about it all. But none of that was really the point right now.

* * *

Sasuke sat in the living room of his clan's former home, his fingers entwined much like he used to do as a younger child. This house was death in it's purest form, and no matter how much he scrubbed the walls, the blood scent would linger around him forever.

_'This house is not a home. It will never be a home – not again.'_

He wondered idly what Sakura was doing at that very moment, and it felt almost discomforting to not live with someone anymore. Sasuke had been technically living with other people since he left the Hidden Leaf Village, first starting out at Orochimaru's base – where he lived with not only the Snake Sannin, but also, Kabuto, as well as Orochimaru's 'test subjects', though the latter, you could hardly consider to be good company.

After he killed his former sensei, he lived with Team Hawk, and then eventually, with the Akatsuki. When he returned to the Hidden Leaf Village, he was immediately housed with Sakura. Living alone again was a very discomforting feeling, and it would take a lot of getting used to.

However, this living situation is what he had wanted, and living in this house was where he truly belonged. It was his clan's former home and he would be damned if he'd let it continue collecting dust. Besides, he was sick of the living situation with Sakura. In fact, the only relatively good thing that came out of that, in his opinion, was how easily he could manipulate her into having sex with him. He knew how Sakura felt towards him and he used it at his own advantage – as cruel as that may seem.

As he gazed around the site of the Uchiha massacre on a daily basis, he couldn't help but remember it all – Itachi's eyes, the blood, the bodies. He kept seeing their faces and it kept him up at night. He kept hearing their voices and they wouldn't stop screaming in his head. Sasuke Uchiha had finally become haunted by his past to a point where it was beginning to effect his life.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Sakura's apartment, Sakura was doing everything in her power to keep from losing her cool and trudging to the Uchiha's new home. She knew, that if she were to do that, she would end up doing nothing less than beating the living crap out of Sasuke for what he'd done.

Being a woman, everything that had happened with Sasuke played over in her mind like a sick mantra. It. Never. Stopped. Repeating. And it was getting so ridiculous, how his words and actions would fester in her mind, distracting her from her training, from her _job. _And she was trying so hard to hate him. Hating him would have been so much easier than loving him. It wouldn't have hurt her at all to hate him with every fiber of her being.

Did he rape her? After all, she didn't technically say no, but she didn't exactly agree to being ravished in front of her front door either.

_'What the **hell** was up with that anyway?'_

Sasuke pinning her down and having his way with her... who the hell did he think he was?

Sakura was getting mad. No, she was getting flat out _**pissed**_ just thinking about it all. But above all else, she was even more pissed off at herself, because her resolve to not cave into him was breaking by the day and the more things that he did to her – the soft glances, the kisses, the conversations they would occasionally have whenever it would rain, etc. – they were pulling her into a world she never wanted to return to. A world full of love and adoration for the mysterious Uchiha prodigy from her childhood.

She wasn't supposed to feel this way towards him, not anymore. She wasn't supposed to feel so damn _**weak**_. But alas, here she was – lying in her bed and staring at her wall as the rain poured outside of her window. A random thought occurred to her during her silent reverie.

_'This is the first rainstorm I've spent alone since he's left.'_

Sakura had the entire day off from her hospital duties and she couldn't have been more relieved. Despite her love for being a medic, she was exhausted today and she had no idea why. It was as if the life had been drained from her; she hadn't even bothered to get out of bed. She just stared at her bedroom wall, her eyes occasionally shifting towards the window to watch the raindrops pour down.

She was lonely, and she hated that. Things like the eerie silence that filled her apartment shouldn't have come as so strange; she barely spoke to Sasuke when he lived with her, anyhow. Why should him not being here be any different?

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Sakura turned over to lie on her back, her apathetic eyes staring up at her ceiling. She wondered, idly, what Sasuke was doing at that very moment. The rain was still pouring when she walked outside, her body instantly becoming drenched due to the endless downpour. But Sakura didn't care if she got wet, nor did she care if the got sick. She needed out of the apartment and out of her head before she went insane.

She wouldn't go to him; that would be the ultimate sign of weakness on her own behalf. And she refused to be weak for him anymore, at least, as much as she could. She knew in her heart, however, he would forever be in her way; he was an obstacle of her life that she'd never cross over. He was her everything and from what she could tell, she meant almost nothing to him in return.

It was a bit ironic how things had worked out, considering how much Sasuke despised her back when they were Genin. And now look at him, he's succumbed to staking his claim upon her body, and from the looks of things, he couldn't satisfy his thirst for her by simply taking her once, or twice, or even a dozen times.

It was because she showed him compassion and the utmost love that a part of him clung on to her. Looking back, he remembered the feeling of security that he had always clung to as a child towards his mother; that same sense of security radiated off of Sakura's very presence whenever he was around. He missed that feeling so much, that it kept him drawn to her. But he didn't love her. He couldn't afford to love anyone. No, all that mattered was restoring his clan to it's former glory, at **any**cost. With that thought in mind and a malicious gleam in his eyes, Sasuke began heading out the door.

* * *

"**I never claimed to be a saint..." **

* * *

**A/N: **Yes, this chapter is short! But I'm ending the story soon. I'll be posting the epilogue immediately after. I'm sorry about the cliffhanger and whatnot but uh, expect the epilogue within hours of posting this.


	13. Epilogue!

**A/N: **Alas, here is the epilogue. Originally, I was going to make this a separate fic, but its a good epilogue (thanks to some minor/major detailing in the plot line) for this story. I'm sorry I couldn't make it longer, and I hope you guys can understand and hopefully enjoy the end of this story.

**-Standard Disclaimer Disclosed-**

* * *

_...Three months after he had moved out..._

The room was spinning and Sakura gripped the counter top of the flower shop to hold onto something—anything. So much, at that very moment in time, was at stake: her sanity, her heart, and her control. But she couldn't help but feel like everything inside of her was crumbling apart. Her resolve, her heart, and her mind was breaking in pieces as Ino's words echoed over and over again inside of her head.

"_So did you hear? Sasuke-kun got that Karin girl pregnant!"_

* * *

**"****Ooh, my own was banished long ago.  
It took the death of hope to let you go..."**

* * *

She'd never felt more nauseous in her entire life. Pregnant? Karin? Sasuke?

_'When...? How...? Why...?'_

It was at that very moment that she felt like dying. It was like a kunai had been shot through her heart and she was gone. She was on the floor, hyperventilating.

"What?"

She didn't even realize it, but she was screaming at Ino, who was immediately at her side, gripping her arm as she fell to the floor. Her body grew weak and she lost her resolve.

"...I thought you knew... they've been dating for awhile now..."

_'What?'_

Immediately after Ino spoke those words, Sasuke's voice replayed itself in Sakura's head all over again. His lies, the things he kept telling her and leading her to believe.

_'I love you.' _

_'You are the only woman in my life.' _

_'Don't worry, we'll be happy. I'll make you happy, Sakura. I promise.' _

_'Don't worry, we'll get pregnant if we have to try forever.'_

Sakura dry-heaved and Ino was almost certain she was going to vomit on her parents' flower shop floor. She prayed to God that Sakura didn't, because that would be a mess that _**she**_would have to clean up.

"You didn't know...? Sakura, I'm so sorry... I—"

"No!" Sakura screamed, causing Ino's words to fall short as Sakura jumped to her feet and ran as fast and as hard as she could. She didn't know where she was going—maybe to Sasuke's, maybe somewhere else. Wherever her feet were going to take her, she would go.

* * *

**"****So break yourself against my stones,  
And spit your pity in my soul.  
You never needed any help,  
You sold me out to save yourself..."**

* * *

She didn't want to believe it. She _**couldn't **_ believe it. Sasuke wouldn't lie to her... Sasuke loved her... Right...? Didn't everything they had went through together mean something more to him? Maybe the child wasn't his... maybe... it was a mistake...

Finally, she stopped running and ended up outside of the Uchiha manor—at Sasuke's large bedroom window, actually and her heart stopped at the sight before her. There, in all of her glory, was Karin—her stomach about 6 months along in a pregnancy with a child_—__**his **_child—and it was at that very moment that Sakura stopped breathing.

It was at that very moment that Sasuke, who was too busy rubbing Karin's pregnant stomach, noticed Sakura standing there. And his eyes were cold as he looked out the window. As soon as the two made eye contact, Sakura turned around and began running again. She was running from him and he began to chase her—to end things once and for all.

She was out of things to give him. She sure as hell couldn't give him a child, for reasons she didn't quite understand, and she was defeated. And so, she ran from the truth – he didn't want her, he wanted a child. He wanted sex. That thought alone made her sick and she fell to her knees in a wooded area, once more, dry heaving in disgust at both him and herself.

It was at that moment that Sasuke had managed to catch up with her, that she had begun crying. And she was crying _hard. _So hard, that she couldn't breathe and her heart fell to her stomach in agony.

_'How... how could this happen? Why did this happen...? Sasuke-kun...!'_

"Sasuke..." she whispered as she glared hard at the ground, tears pouring down her cheeks in agony.

"Sakura!" he called her name finally and she didn't look up at him, her shoulders shaking as she fell to the ground face first in hysterics.

* * *

**"****And I won't listen to your shame,  
You ran away – you're all the same.  
Angels lie to keep control...  
Ooh, my love was punished long ago,  
If you still care, don't ever let me know!"**

* * *

Why? Why did this have to happen? She couldn't figure it out. What had she done to deserve this? She was a kind person, right? She had a good heart—that is, until he just broke it into a thousand pieces. Now what was left of it.

"Sakura, look at me."

She said nothing, but instead, continued weeping on the ground. Her hands clenched the grass below her for leverage and for the second time that day, nothing she grasped was enough to cling onto. She was broken; destroyed by the only man she had ever truly loved. And it **fucking** hurt.

Her blood pressure shot up and she collapsed there on the forest floor, her entire body wracked with shakes.

_'How could he do this to me?'_

_**'He never loved me.'**_

_'Why did this happen to me?'_

_**'It was bound to happen anyway.'**_

_'Someone... anyone... help me... make this stop! I can't handle this...'_

"GET AWAY FROM ME SASUKE!" she lost it. Standing shakily onto her feet, her eyes never meeting his own as she hunched low to the ground.

"How in the hell could you do this?" she screamed at him and he was at a loss for words.

"I gave everything to you! My heart... my soul... everything! I fucking tried to give you an heir, for two fucking years I tried! And I _couldn't _get pregnant for fucking medical reasons! And so you crawl into bed with some... with some whore? What the fuck was I to you?"

She was cursing a lot, and he wasn't familiar with that. She was always so soft spoken and sweet, and yet, the vulgarities spewing from her mouth were so foreign, he had no idea how to react.

"You knew from the beginning what I expected of you. You couldn't give me what I wanted, so I sought it elsewhere, and I got just that."

Suddenly, she hit him. And she hit him with a strength that not only caused the sound of the slap to emanate throughout the woods, but it also had caused his entire body to actually _**budge**_ in order to fully take the hit. He had certainly NOT expected that; not from her.

"Do me one favor, Uchiha Sasuke, if never again in your entire life," she said upon forcing herself to calm, even if just enough to speak clearly to him. A pained expression mixed with sincerity was written all over her face, as tears cascaded down both of her cheeks, only to meet at her chin and fall to the Earth below.

"Hn. What's that?" He asked, guilt covering his face, mixed with a hint of apathy.

"Don't ever speak to me again. If never again in your life you were to do me this one last favor, make it being that you never say another word to me. I can't deal with this anymore. If you can't make that promise to me, for whatever reason you might have, then I will end my own life."

He said nothing in response. And thus, he let her go, seemingly forever. Unfortunately for him, he didn't walk away soon enough, and was met on the receiving end of her pain-filled screams.

"Leave!" she screamed at him. She wanted him away from her and she didn't have the strength to move herself. So she ordered him to leave her alone, but she didn't just mean now, and it was an unspoken meaning that Sasuke clearly got. And so, for once in his lifetime, he obeyed her wishes and returned back to his home; back to the mother of his unborn child; back to _**Karin**__._

And it was from that moment on that the patterns of both of their lives would change forever. Then again, they technically had begun changing the moment Sasuke first slept with Karin.

* * *

Three months had managed to pass by and in no time at all, Karin's due date had arrived. When Sasuke's child was finally born, it was a sight Sakura couldn't avoid seeing, her being the hospital's top medic and all. Sasuke's clan was damn-near royalty in that village, and both he, Karin, and the village elder's had wanted the best medic to deliver his first born child, in order to assure that nothing went wrong.

She nearly died right there. She was finally able to wake up in the morning without wanting her life to be over, and then, she got the news that she would be delivering the child which was conceived during the final months of their "relationship", or rather, affair. The affair that nobody had known about, nor still knows about.

She took it all better than she expected, her body and mind going instantly into medic mode, treating this birth like every other birth before it. She handed the child off to Karin wordlessly—and emotionlessly—and left the room once her task was over. And like she had done three months earlier, she ran away. Her medic's uniform was still covered in blood as she rain out of the hospital, discarding her medic duties for the rest of the day. It didn't matter—her only task was delivering the beginning of the newly formed Uchiha clan.

So, she ran to that same clearing she ended up at three months earlier and she puked her guts up. She knew eventually she would have to see Sasuke's child, but to deliver it? That wasn't something she could handle. She knew in her heart and gut that she would never be a mother; it just wasn't in the cards for her. She had done everything, despite it all, to be one for him anyways – taking estrogen injections and fertility drugs to increase the chance of her getting pregnant. But nothing worked, and in the end, he was just too damn impatient.

Things after that were more difficult to handle than they had been during the final three months of Karin's pregnancy. Sakura was slacking a lot, and it cost her big time. She was laid off from the hospital; dismissed from her duties until she could get her act together. Her loss of being able to do her job put her into a depression like no other and she reached a breaking point of which she barely left her house.

Along with her lack of socialization, she barely ate and barely slept at night. Her thought process relived her life with Sasuke – both the good and the bad. And she couldn't cry over it all, she wouldn't lower herself to that point again. And so, she bottled everything up. She would see them sometimes walking on the street. She knew that they had gotten married – it was the event of the century. Of course, Sakura didn't attend their wedding, and she had already arranged ahead of time with the hospital that anymore of Sasuke's heirs would NOT be delivered by Sakura, no matter what the circumstance.

He wouldn't even spare her a second glance during their fleeting moments of reuniting on the streets. He got what he wanted after all. Why should she matter? It pained her more than anything in the world, to see a child conceived at the exact same time frame that SHE was trying to give him a child.

Yes, you heard correctly, folks – Sakura had finally caved and agreed to give Sasuke the family he was dreaming of, too far in love with him to continue refusing him. But fate would have it, however, that she had a great difficulty in getting pregnant. They were never an official couple, and that was HIS doing. And now, Sakura knew why. There was someone else. There had always been someone else. And in her heart, there were moments when she KNEW, but refused to acknowledge the fact. Because love makes us stupid, and we'll do just about anything to make the ones we love happy. Even if it means destroying ourselves in the end.

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"**...If you still care, don't ever let me know..."**

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**A/N: **Sadface! D: I'm sorry for ending this again, but it was inevitable... Just something I had to do. I hope you guys enjoyed the story. :)


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